Bunch Of Thoughts

BUNCH OF THOUGHTS

M. S. Golwalkar

BUNCH OF THOUGHTS

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1966

1966

19<56

1968

TO

THE LATE PROF. M. A. VENKATA RAO

Preface

T HE Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh— or more commonly
called the R. S. S.— was started in 1925 on the day of
Vijayadashami. The founder, revered Doctor Keshav
Baliram Hedgewar, passed away in 1940. Sri Madhav
Sadashiv Golwalkar— popularly known as Guruji— has been
the chief of the organisation since then. The year 1965
therefore marked the completion of 40 years of the Sangh
and 25 years of its leadership by Sri Guruji.

The present attempt to collect some of his thoughts
has made us feel like ‘picking pebbles on the shores of
ocean’. The impossibility of compressing in a single
handy volume the various thoughts that he has expressed
over the last 25 years in thousands of his speeches, talks,
discussions and informal chitchats over a whole range of
national topics is obvious. What is attempted here is just
to present his viewpoint on various topics. With this
end in view some of his ideas are strung together under
different heads. We do not claim any systematic presenta-
tion, much less a thorough and exhaustive exposition of
the topics under each head.

Moreover, most of his speeches are in Hindi. The
force and diction of his chaste Hindi and the inspiring
images they bring up are bound to suffer while rendering
them into other languages, especially to a foreign tongue.
Naturally the ideas contained herein are his, but the words
are ours. As such we are keenly aware of the shortcomings
of these words and expressions.

Burdened though with all such anxieties, what made
us to take up this task is the confidence that the radiance
of his thoughts will outshine all these dark spots and
illumine the national mind. The greatest single factor,
however, that has contributed to the happy consummation
of this task is the loving and wise guidance of the late
Prof. M. A. Venkata Rao — a reputed thinker, author,
journalist and a philospher in the truest sense of the
term. The relations he had with Sri Guruji were not
only of utmost affection and respect but extended to their
complete identity in views regarding our national affairs.
Prof. M. A. Venkata Rao had gone through every page
of the first manuscript that was got ready as early as
in 1960. He made suitable corrections and offered

valuable suggestions. More than all he blessed our efforts
by writing the invaluable Introduction. Though the

original manuscript was again supplemented with some
more fresh ideas of Sri Guruji, the Introduction that
the late Professor wrote, needless to say, is as fitting today
as it was five years ago. The ideas he has presented
therein touch the eternal life-springs of our nation. His
depth of vision, his vast erudition and masterly presenta-
tion are all blended in those few pages. He had a desire to
write a longer Introduction. With that end in view he
had once again begun going through the present manuscript
even as he was lying on his sick-bed in the hospital. He
had even completed a few chapters. But his illness suddenly
took a grave turn. Just at that moment Providence brought
Sri Guruji to his bedside. Two days later Prof. Venkata Rao
passed away leaving us his blessings and his original Intro-
duction. Now, that Introduction is no more a formal
introduction. It is his sacred will. And the present publi-
cation itself is a fulfilment of his last wish. His persistent and
compelling desire, especially during his last days, to see the
life-giving thoughts of Sri Guruji reach every heart and home
as quickly as possible, verily became a call of national duty
vouchsafed to us by that great departed soul.

Yes, this humble effort of ours is indeed in response to
the call of national duty. As the following pages will
bear out, the thoughts of Sri Guruji are proving a
beacon light in the confused state of our national mind
today. The crisis in our country is more intellectual
and mental than physical. Whatever physical maladies
are seen today ravaging our body-politic have their roots
in the weaknesses and perversions of the brain and the
heart. Often these failings strut about masquerading as
high ideals trying to cover up their disastrous effects.
Sri Guruji’s ideas have the intensity of warmth and light to
dispel all such darkness and charge the nation’s mind with
right vision and the spirit of right action.

A short pen-portrait of Sri Guruji’s life at this juncture
will help our readers to appreciate his ideas better on
the background of his dynamic personality.

The only surviving darling son of his parents, Sri
Guruji showed signs of extraordinary talents even as a
boy. Later, after doing his M. Sc., he was for some time a
professor in the Banaras Hindu University. He was
respectfully called ‘Guruji’ by his beloved students and
the epithet stuck to him in later years. But his was
not the spirit to be cribbed and cabined in the confines of
service. He resigned and returned to Nagpur. He did his
LL.B., but never practised law. He had by then come
under the magnetic influence of Doctor Hedgewar. That
was like Narendra (later on Vivekananda) meeting Sri
Ramakrishna. The result was equally epoch-making.
Guruji resolved to lay his all at the feet of Doctor Hedgewar.
Never was there any place in his thinking for things like
personal pleasures and family attachment. Before the
blaze of his passionate idealism the shadows of the
temptations of the mundane world fled.

Even to this day, his life is burning like a steady
flame lighting up the path ,of national reorganisation,
crossing all political and sectarian boundaries. There are
very few great men today who have travelled throughout

X

the length and breadth of Bharat as often as Sri Guruji.
He has constant personal contact with thousands of places
and lakhs of Sangh swayamsevaks and others.

With his finger constantly on the nation’s pulse, with
his unceasing concern for the good of the country, Sri Guruji
is eminently the leader qualified to guide the nation.
Rising above the rules of position or power or personal
glory, his single-minded devotion is to the nation as
a whole. His utterances therefore carry the ring of naked
truth. He is fearless in his espousal of the nation’s cause and
makes no concession to any individual or party.

With this, we leave it to the discerning readers to find
in the following unvarnished, undecorated presentation
of Sri Guruji’s thoughts, rays of undying hope and guidance
and inspiration for treading on the path of our national
life-mission.

By a happy coincidence today, the Magha Krishna
Ekadashi, Vishwavasu Samvat, 16th of February 1966 —
when the present volume is being published — Sri Guruji
enters his sixty-first year.

Our heartfelt thanks are due to all those whose loving
co-operation has made this arduous — though pleasant— task
possible.

PUBLISHERS

PREFACE TO THE POPULAR EDITION

The first edition as also the subsequent two impressions of the present
book were completely sold out within a few months of their publication.
Demands for more copies are continuing to pour in from all over the
country and even abroad, necessitating this fourth impression.

We confidently look forward to an ever-increasing appreciation of the
priceless treasure of thoughts embodied in the book by an ever-widening
circle of discerning readership.

We thank M/s. Sharada Press, Mangalore, for having taken special
pains to print this book within the shortest possible time.

PUBLISHERS

CONTENTS

PREFACE vii

INTRODUCTION xxi

PART ONE-THE MISSION

I OUR WORLD MISSION 1-10

Present mental complex— Hindus, the first
world thought-givers— The world of conflicts—

Theories bom to root out nationalism,

Failure; ex: Communism in Russia— Various
attempts at synthesis of nations — The
dilemma— Our solution: Inner Bond for human
unity — Hindus alone equipped for World
Mission— The first step.

II CHALLENGE OF THE TIMES 11-21

Birth of Democracy as a reaction— The evil
of Capitalism— Next reaction, Communism —

Falsity of its prophecy and promise, ex:

Russia— Both theories shifting from original
stand— Both stemming from materialism—

Failure as a theory —Wrong concept of
equality —Our view of individual and society—

Man, not system, important.

Ill CALL OF OUR NATIONAL SOUL 22-32

Revival, not reaction— Culture, indefinable
yet all-absorbing — Nation as God — True
xi

xii

spirit of service— Not rights but duty— Unity
in diversity— To raise the average— Present
perversions— Watering roots of immortality.

IV FOR TRUE NATIONAL GLORY

Our unique concept of glory — Fourfold
achievement — Dharma for individual deve-
lopment and social solidarity — Materialism
ends in misery — What made us world
teachers — Organised strength for attaining
and maintaining glory — Right men for
organisation.

V LIVE POSITIVE DYNAMIC HINDUISM

The indefinable ‘Hindu’— Aim : God Realisa-
tion — Special features— Our unique standard-
bearers— Need to manifest ideals in daily
life — Effects of ‘ reactionary Hinduism ’—
Role of daily samskars — Fad of ‘ modern-
ism ’ — Hindu ideals in all spheres — Live
national swadharma.

VI VISION OF OUR WORK

Short-cut mania— Lure of politics— Warn-
ing of history — Secret of our undying
potency — Inspiration for national rejuve-
nation — Power corrupts — Restraints on
power — Effects of combination of political
and economic powers — Lesson of Europe —
Sangh, building people’s power— Upholding
National genius.

PART TWO - THE NATION AND
ITS PROBLEMS
VII OUR MOTHERLAND

1. THE GRAND VISION

Our. glorious motherland — An ancient

concept — Britishers’ hand in subverting it—

33-45

46-60

61-75

79-88

xui

Hoary descriptions of Bharat, Himalayas—

The complete picture— Chosen land of God
Realisation — Patriotism spiritualised — Its
living tradition .

2. WANTED HEROIC DEVOTION 89-96

Limits of intellectualism— Mother concept;

Sign of evolution— Two aspects of devotion—

Heroic devotion alone counts — Fruits of
‘not a blade of grass grows’ mentality—

Political boundaries decided by nation’s
will-power.

VIII CHILDREN OF THE MOTHERLAND 97-120

Why the name 4 Hindu’— Our social diversity,
sign of evolution — Many sects but one
dharma — Its twofold object — Reasons for
present perversion — Varna-vyavastha : Ori-
ginal form ; not the cause of slavery ;
present-day perversions— All our languages
national— Myth of Tamil separatism— Why
Hindi as official language— Present linguis-
tic chauvinism— Aryan -Dravidian contro-
versy, a political game— The fresh dissen-
sions — Realise underlying unity— A duty by
birth.

IX FOR A VIRILE NATIONAL LIFE 121-135

Nation, a positive concept— What modern
scholars say — Hindu, child of Bharat —
Community of culture, history etc.— Hence,

Hindu Nation — Non-Hindus and test of
nationality— Not nurture but culture counts—

Call to non-Hindus— Revive spirit of assimi-
lation— Non-Hindus in Hindu Rash tra— Basis
for national integration.

xiv

X TERRITORIAL NATIONALISM

1. ITS ROOTS

Why the word ‘ Rashtriya ’ — The British
game— Effects of English education —History
distorted— Birth of territorial nationalism—
Its absurdity.

2. ITS FRUITS

Revolutionaries turned traitors — Congress
turned reactionary — Nature of non-Hindu
communities — Muslim appeasement— Hindus
exhorted for self-annihilation— Leadership, a
tragic curse — Malady continuing — Correct
initial blunder.

XI CALL FOR COURAGE OF CONVICTION
‘Secularists’ and Hindu Nationalism— Fear
complex, root of ‘Hindu-Muslim bhai-bhai’ —
Story with a moral — Ingrained conviction
of Hindu Nationalism— Even truth requires
‘ proof’.

XII INTERNAL THREATS

1. THE MUSLIMS

Muslims after Partition — Twofold strategy :
direct aggression ; swelling numbers — Our
leaders’ policy, violence pays — The time-
bomb— Forgetting nothing, learning nothing—
Miniature Pakistans — ‘ Nationalist Muslims’
exposed— Face Reality.

2. THE CHRISTIANS

Under ‘humanitarian’ mask— Irreligious and
political tactics— Niyogi Committee’s verdict—
Activities in Nagaland, Kerala etc. — Same
story the world over.

136-143

144-157

158-165

166-178

179-186

XV

3. THE COMMUNISTS 187-194

How Communism strikes root — Wrong
approach of the West— Reactionary remedies;

Bhoodan — Danger of Socialism — In the
footprints of China — Revive national genius.

PART THREE— THE PATH TO GLORY

XIII MEETING THE HISTORIC NEED 197-216

Our indebtedness to society — The best
service — Past glory — Destruction by ene-
mies — Once powerful and free — Race of
Jayachands leads to Muslim and British
success — The malady continues ; formation
of Pakistan — A house divided — History
repeating itself; Dravidanad etc.— Federal
structure, a poisonous seed — Basic cure.

XIV THE ETERNAL BASIS 217-230

Need for positive basis— Effects of reactionary
approach — Sangh for permanent organised
life — Fate of temporary movements ; Con-
gress — Nation in drifting — The remedy —

Red signal.

XV THE ELIXIR OF NATIONAL LIFE

1. WORLD OF REALITY 231-238

Strong devours weak— Great fact of world
history— The present world picture— Slogans
change, fact remains — Mirage of mutual
friendship— Friendship of strong and weak—

Strength for peace and freedom.

2. THE ULTIMATE SANCTION 239-254

Perils of high platitudes— Fate of Panch-
sheel — Myth of international prestige —

xvi

World worships strength — Our perverted
notions —Non-violence or imbecility?— Our
great examples — The right philosophy —
Real source of strength.

XVI WORSHIPPERS OF VICTORY

Deifying the great— Misreading of scriptures —
Selfishness, helplessness at the root— Effort
is God— Great examples —Worship of the
victorious — Martyr, great but not ideal—
Lesson of Rajput martyrdom— Act, do not
react— Philosophy of right action.

XVII FIGHT TO WIN

1. THE RIGHT MEASURES

Nature and magnitude of threat — Steel
people’s will — Robust national leadership
required— Keep up nation’s morale— Watch-
word : Economise ! — Dangers of personality
cult — Communist ‘split’, a ruse — Warning
of Chinese ‘ cease-fire ’ — Beware Pakistani
fifth column— Appeasing Pakistan suicidal —
Recognise friends— Fortify trusted sentinels.

2. THE RIGHT PHILOSOPHY

Real threat, Crisis of character — Morality
from top downwards — Ideal that inspires—
Historic call of Hindu Nation — Leaders’
dream— Call of realism— Fate of ‘unilateral
goodness’ — Real national strength— Strength
begets friends— A blessing, but when?

XVIII NATION AT WAR

1. CALL OF A NEW ERA
Self-respect, nation’s life-breath— Superio-
rity of man over machine— Myth exploded—
Nation’s heroic mettle — Guideline for

255-267

268-284

285-298

299-312

xvii

national policies— Destroying the real war-
potential— Akhand Bharat, only solution —
UNO in true colours— Rule of international
friendship— Kashmir, a closed chapter —
Welcome bigger war.

2. MEETING THE CHALLENGE
Self-reliance, backbone of freedom; Atom
Bomb — Challenge of the belly— Break
spell of money— Price of foreign depend-
ence— England’s example— Building nation’s
morale — Government’s responsibility — Path
of assimilating doubtful elements— Present
war, a great chastener— Upsurges and lasting
integration— Hindu Nationalism, acme of all
‘ isms ’.

PART FOUR— MOULDING MEN

XIX THE TECHNIQUE THAT SUCCEEDS

1. EOR TRUE NATIONAL

REORGANISATION

Failings of revolutionary and mass move-
ments— Day-to-day technique for moulding
men— Stress on practice — National symbol
Bhagawa Dhwaj, the Guru — Worship of
ideal, not individual or book — Shakha,
crucible of national reorganisation— Tradi-
tion of national festivals — Dangers of e insti-
tutionalism’— Domination of militant groups,
an un-Hindu concept— San gh for organising
whole society.

2. THE RIGHT APPROACH

Political parties and national consolidation—
England and Bharat— Need for radical cure—
How to transform minds — Momentary
upsurges recoil— Rules for samskars— From
little things to great things — Indiscipline,

313-325

329-342

343-362

XV111

enemy of strength— True discipline — Present
misconceptions-Swayamsevak, a missionary-
Self-reliance, self-effacement— Practising, then
preaching — Disciplined and dedicated —
Nucleus for national resurrection.

3. EFFICACY OF THE TECHNIQUE
Moulding lion-hearted men— For spontaneous
unity, self-restraint, self-sacrifice— Technique
that suits— Role of elders.

XX CHARACTER— PERSONAL AND
NATIONAL

Our cultural speciality— Personal character—
Purity of means— Personal laxity, a national
danger — Tragedy of passive ‘goodness’ —
National character, the life-breath — Verdict
of history — Devotion is not bargaining —
Power of devotion — When character blooms.

XXI BE MEN WITH CAPITAL ‘M’

Be foundation stones— Ideal of service— Self-
reliance ; glowing examples— Curse of career-
ism— Choosing the right ideal— Avoid two
extremes— Serve nation— Shake off inferiority
complex, cheap imitations— Secret of world
respect ; our past heroes — Past tradition —
What Mother wants.

XXII MEN WITH MISSION

Real greatness, making men out of dust —
Genuine spirit of identity— Assert faith in
goodness — Building comradeship — Be self-
confident, beware of self-conceit— Lesson of
great lives — Egoless is success — One life,
one mission — Self-introspection, self-refor-
mation — The joy of idealism— The glory of
suffering— ‘ Excelsior

363-368

369-380

381-397

398-413

414-427

XXIII THE IDEAL INCARNATE

Life-long self-crucifixion — Self -transforma-
tion — Friend of all, enemy to none — The
irresistible — Incomparable unifier — Self-
effaced — Living for others — In the fire of
endless exertion — The death that enlivens
millions — How words derive power — Child
of greatness.

ADDENDUM

WANTED A UNITARY STATE
(An article by Sri M. S. Golwalkar)

ILLUSTRATIONS

Sri M. S. Golwalkar
Dr. K. B. Hedge war

429-437

Facing xxxiv
Facing 414

Introduction

Independent India is engaged in a many-sided renaissance
and reconstruction more or less consciously directed to what
may compendiously be called nation-making (or remaking)
in an image more adequate to the needs of the present and
future of India as a strong, creative nation guiding the
destinies of its people in accordance with a worthy and
inspiring chart of life.

This era commenced roughly with the emergence and
work of Raja Rammohan Roy in the beginning of the last
century and has continued to the present day through the
life effort of notable thinkers in many fields like Ramakrishna
and Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand, Sri Aurobindo and
Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhi and Tagore, Dr. Hedgewar and
Veer Savarkar. These are only typical names and do not
exhaust the galaxy.

The work of sympathetic indologists, British, French
and German and of many historians, foreign and Indian like
Havell and Radhakumud Mukerji (and the Maratha historians
in particular) helped to give a more hopeful and creative
role to Indian history, showing the successive epochs of
renaissance and recollection of the national soul that met
the challenge of the times and re-established the supremacy
of the dominant ethos again and again. The Buddhist, the
Maurya, the Sunga, the Gupta, the Harsha ages in the past
and the Vijayanagar and Maratha and Sikh eras in more
recent history may be reckoned as such eras of nationaL
self-recollection and re-assertion.

XXI

In the present phase of the struggle (and triumph) with
the British Power (typifying the entire gamut of foreign ideas
and ideals) we have a similar period of the re-assertion
of the national self-consciousness and of a conscious search
for the roots of our culture as the living points on which
we may regraft current life and foster it to vigorous growth
and power.

In this many-sided effort, the image of Indian culture as
the pattern of nation-building is laid over with many confused
notions from the West and from distorted ideas of the past of
our own life.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi introduced a powerful
leaven into this maelstrom of ideas, impulses and images
having many elements congenial to the spirit of Indian
Culture. His fasts and vows, his silences, his prayer meetings,
his satyagraha — all appeared to have a family resemblance
to the tapasya of old. The Hindu spirit dormant in the
educated classes (and ordinarily submerged beneath their
secular education of the Anglo-Indian colleges) rose to the
surface and hailed the political leader as a spiritual Mahatma
of the authentic type of the spiritual past. Thus the national
liberation movement of M. K. Gandhi derived power from
the cultural heritage indwelling in the subconscious mind of
the people.

But unfortunately as the political motif was dominant
in the Gandhian movement, the cultural forces it invoked
and mobilised were not grasped in their genuine purity and
power and were not related naturally and organically to the
ideas of politics, economics, social order and values and the
many dharmas of the living past. They were all mobilised as
vague sources of inspiration against the common enemy namely
the foreign rulers. They afforded no positive pattern of
the new Indian society and state, economy and social order
that was to replace the present order of things under long
foreign rule. It was mainly negative, the many types of
leaders following the Mahatma being content to put off
decisive thinking on positive lines for the post-liberation

XX111

epoch. Thus we find the Mahatma choosing a person with
nothing in common with his ultimate ideas on man, nation
and God like Jawaharlal Nehru to succeed him as the national
leader. The Nehru Mind is made mostly abroad and in
spite of his Discovery of India, Sri Nehru never succeeded
in catching the spirit of Indian culture at its best. Thus the
blue-print of the new society he is using as Prime Minister
and leader of national reconstruction for building independent
India is the ‘socialist pattern of society" which is infinitely
more abstract and superficial, more mechanical and charged
with unsolved problems of class conflict than the foundational
ideas of the past.

“Today we find everywhere attempts to recast our life-
pattern in the mould of an American, English or Russian way
of life. How can we call it swatantrata (freedom) which has
no swa (our genius) in it? Then it is only para-tantra . If
Lenin is kept as the ideal it becomes ‘ Lenin-tantra 5 and not
swa-tantra\ In fact, protection and propagation of our national
life-values, i.e., our dharma and samskriti , have always been
held in our historical tradition as the raison d'etre of
swatantrata

(Chapter XXI)

“This is how our people are drifting under all tall talk
of progress. We do not know where we are going. Is there
today anything that can be pointed out as the essence of
our own national life? Our way of life, our method of
education, our mode of behaviour, our way of dress, our way
of building houses, towns and cities and all such elements of
our national ethos have undergone such an awful change that
we do not stop for a moment to consider whether this
abject imitation of others is not a humiliation of our national
pride, a sure sign of losing our national identity and drifting
into intellectual slavery.”

(Chapter XIV)

It is this lack of a positive idea of Indian society at its

xxiv

best, accumulated and moulded through centuries of culture
and civilisation (that is yet alive in the subconscious of our
people in all their ranks) that is so disappointing in the
current efforts led by Government and official and authoritative
leaders for national renovation. The failure in education
is the most signal indication of this grave lacuna. Indian
education has some of the most creative features making
for sublimity and a uniform level of success in character
formation influencing life in its inmost springs. But the
failure of the present leadership in this field is total in
character and reveals an entire absence of any inward grasp
of the spiritual climate of Indian education in its essential
quality and pattern.

The excessive preoccupation with the passing need of
political agitation accounts for the failure to achieve a positive
image of national patriotism by the Gandhian movement
with sufficient depth reaching the springs of the spiritual
heritage of the land.

The statement may seem rather strange when applied to
the national liberation movement of Gandhi and Nehru. But
it is a fact nevertheless !

The failure showed itself disastrously in their dealing
with the Muslims from the very beginning of the Gandhian
movement after the Punjab atrocities at Amritsar and the
Khilafat movement of the Ali Brothers.

The Gandhians assumed that the Ali Brothers and their
fellow members of Islam were as a matter of actual fact
adherents to Indian nationalism and were committed to
India in the same sense as Hindus ! Of course, they could
have joined the national body on equal terms if they had
wanted to. But the fact is that their leaders like Sir Syed
Ahmed and others of the Aligarh movement had developed
along separate lines. They were taught to demand separate
electorates which ultimately in the fulness of time led to
Pakistan and the partition of the country along religious
lines.

The failure of Indian history to assimilate the Muslims

XXV

into the national society, as it had succeeded in assimilating
the earlier invaders— the Shakas, Scythians and Hunas— is
a notable fact which the new Indian leaders of national
liberation ignored altogether. They committed the blunder
that by giving concessions to Muslims at the cost of the
majority, they could win them over ! The sequel showed that
it was a tragic blunder. No concessions given without change
of ideology on the part of the recipients could bring about
the change needed.

“There was a very rational and patriotic way of approach.
That was to tell them frankly, 4 Dear friends, the days of
old Moghul Badshahi have passed. Now both of us will
have to live ultimately as brothers here, as co -sharers in this
national life. After all, you also belong to the same race
as ours, to the same blood as ours, but converted to Islam
at the point of sword by those Moghul, Turk and other
foreign races. Now, there is no point in your continuing
to associate yourself mentally with those foreign aggressors
and trying to follow their footsteps. Forget all such
separatist memories, merge yourself in the life of this soil.
Hereafter try to respect and follow the examples of the great
sons of this land who fought for the freedom and honour
of our motherland and our culture.’ Then matters would
have been very simple.”

(Chapter X-2)

Assimilation is possible and necessary but it requires
the right philosophy and right psychology, the right strategy
and tactics. But Indian leaders proved incapable of evolving
any such change of technique. They persisted in their colossal
blunder until they had to vivisect the motherland. They retain
the same blundering techniques even today and are thus
encouraging further 4 Pakistans * !

From another point of view, too, the ‘Weltanschauung’
of the national liberation leaders has proved too negative
and therefore sterile and frustrating. This concerns the
right relation India under independent auspices should

xxvi

envisage towards modern Western civilisation. It is too often
forgotten that Hinduism is not merely a sect, a small religious
fellowship concerned exclusively with modes of worship
or social customs peculiar to it. The word Hindu in this
context has a national character. It is tantamount to the
word Indian — i.e., pertaining to a people living beside the
river Sindhu. It connotes the entire culture and civilisation
of the Indian people from pre-historic times developed on
Indian soil through millennia.

During the Gandhian era, the idea of developing a Hindu
civilisation stemming from the living roots of the past and
assimilating the best of the present Western pattern of
values had the dominant place in the thoughts of some
leaders. Gandhi’s little book ‘Hind Swaraj’ is symptomatic
of this desire, though there was no agreement on all sides
with the ideas adumbrated therein.

But today we find that the alien, unassimilated, crude,
class-war ridden, monolithic social structure associated with
Marxism is influencing the structural ideals and actual policies
of the authorities without any re-assessment of ideas so
essential to such a vast and fateful undertaking.

Here too the vacuum in the sphere of Indian cultural
ideas in the minds of leaders in authority is being filled up
by ideas and ideals unsuited to national renovation. The
iconoclastic method seems to be taking the upper hand in
preference to creative reform.

In both spheres namely that of the minority assimilation
into national society and that of the assimilation of
Westernism (both its politico -social philosophy and its
science and technology) India needs to adopt a more
positive and more creative policy with a clear vision of the
best features of Indian society at its best and of the
enduring element of nationalism and Westernism in just
proportion and with sure insight into their human
significance.

It is significant that this more concrete point of view
attained form and substance in the organisation founded

XXV11

as early as 1925 at Nagpur by Dr. Hedgewar. The philosophy
and history that his movement known as the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (literally National Volunteer Corps)
embodied belong to the more positive, concrete inspiration that
was so lacking in the more dominant Gandhian movement
that captured the headlines on account of its immediate
political interest and the urgency of national liberation.

In addition to the right philosophy and history of
Indian culture, Dr. Hedgewar hit upon a unique method
of training the young through a course of mental and
physical exercises. In its combination of mind and body
for training, the Sangh technique of education reminds us
of the main features of the Platonic system of Music and
Gymnastics. By music, Plato meant the whole range of
the arts and the sciences — history, philosophy, science and
the fine arts. By gymnastics, he meant physical exercises
for developing a sound mind in a sound body, with health
and bodily condition responding to the highest impulses of
the soul like the veena in the hands of the musician. Music
must pervade the body.

Looking at the exercises of the young volunteers in
the Sangh, the observer sees how closely they succeed in
realising the ideals of Plato. Plato included courage as one
of the cardinal virtues and so too the Sangh instructors
stress courage and the virtues needed for resisting wrong and
aggression.

The current aspersions against the RSS mostly by
Congress leaders and followers to the effect that it is a
4 communal organisation ’ and more dangerous to the country
than even Communism are a travesty of the fact.

The present collection of thoughts expressed by Param
Pujaniya Guruji Golwalkarji on different occasions to Sangh
workers and public in many parts of the country over a
decade' and more, serve to bring together the outlines of the
philosophy and history of Indian culture as well as the
technique of nation-making followed by the Sangh as laid
down by its founder Dr. Hedgewar.

XXV111

To appreciate its full role as perhaps the most influential
movement of cultural reconstruction in the land today
(which has spread practically to all parts of the country
from the Punjab to Madras), it is necessary to eschew the
petty -minded criticisms of ignorant and jealous opponents
that it is ‘ communal ’ or merely ‘ Hindu ’ in any derogatory
sense.

It is based on a philosophy of national culture and
envisages the whole of the nation.

The outlook it offers has room for all minorities on
condition of their whole-hearted submission to the supreme
value of the nation in their lives. The nation is the vehicle
of universal truths and is not an entity above them. This
is no chauvinist nationalism of the kind associated with
Mussolini and Hitler in the recent West.

It teaches loyalty and devotion to the national society in
the national homeland under the image of the Mother. The
unity and solidarity of the Motherland is taught to claim the
highest sacrificial devotion from the citizen body. Whoever
enters into this spirit of devotion to the nation as a
spiritual unity of land and people are Indians or Hindus
in essence. The mental commitment should be final and
supreme.

This is quite consistent with different groups and sects
retaining their own modes of worship and social customs
so long as they do not conflict with social cohesion.

“ We must revive once again the parakrama-vad, For
that, we should make it clear that the non -Hindu who
lives here as a rdshtra dharma (national responsibility),
a samdja dharma (duty to society), a hula dharma (duty
to ancestors), and only in his vyahti dharma (personal
faith), he can choose any path which satisfies his spiritual
urge. If, even after fulfilling all these various duties in
social life, anybody says that he has studied Quran Sherif or
the Bible and that way of worship strikes a sympathetic
chord in his heart, that he can pray better through that
path of devotion, we have absolutely no objection. Thus

XXIX

he has his choice in a portion of his individual life. For
the rest, he must be one with the national current. That
is real assimilation.

(Chapter IX)

The Muslim and Christian and Jew etc., have perfect
updsana swatantrya, freedom of worship so long as they do
not seek to destroy or undermine the faith and symbolism
of the national society. They should subordinate their
exclusive claims for final and sole revelation vis-a-vis the
national society. They could bear witness to their faith in
life and speech but they should not indulge in any unfair
and unspiritual modes of conversion.

The national identity requires that the whole of national
society including minorities should share in the best values
of the past. They should appreciate national dharma —
the code of ethical principles and ways of life enshrined in
the best usage. In cultural history, they should all give
their mind and hearts whole-heartedly to an appreciation
of the best types. Rama and Krishna may be appreciated
by non-Hindus as secular examples while the Hindus will
see them as full spiritual exemplars {avatars).

The national history of the Muslim period should be
re-written giving the truth without varnish and all should
appreciate the best values exemplified by the heroes of
authentic history.

Thus these thoughts go on to delineate quietly and
patiently the portrait of the best Indian society and pattern
of values in all spheres of life and culture— philosophy, art
and social order, that the Sangh seeks to hold before the
mirror of the national mind. To see the wood in spite of
the bewildering number of trees that crowd the landscape,
it is necessary to see in a bird’s eye view the full design
of the landscape after which details will fall into an
illuminating order.

Pride in the cultural heritage of the past is the
recurring theme of the lectures. Chapter after chapter

XXX

points to some aspect or other of the features that bear
inspiring value for present emulation in social life and
incarnation into individual character and personality. Enough
is said to vindicate faith in the best values of inherited culture
and its capacity to afford guidance even today.

1. Philosophy: Darshanas

Vedanta as the typical philosophy of India envisages a
vision of the universe steeped in Spirit fulfilling a life of
eternal joy. Individual souls as sparks of such a supreme
cosmic spirit have the divine destiny of realising universality
and becoming godlike. This assures equality of spirit among
all souls. What higher basis of democracy can we have
than this? What greater stimulus to generosity and self-
sacrificing participation in the life of society? The nation
is the grouping next to family and clan and neighbourhood
in the service of which we grow in moral stature.

All groups who share in this vision and discipline can
become equal compatriots but none else. Traitors cannot
be assimilated into the national fellowship until they change
in spirit.

2. Toleration

Springing from understanding and sense of identity, this
philosophy of immanence has produced the Indian doctrine
of toleration of all points of view, religious views and ways
of life. For all are expressions of the same cosmic spirit
and can reach the same goal at their own pace and in their
own way in accordance with their own symbols, provided
they are sincere in their aspiration and effort. Errors will
correct themselves in the climb.

Adhikara Bheda

Divergent status due to divergent qualification is the
formula that reconciles identity of goal and diversity of
pathway.

xxxi

3. Social Order

Such a view has evolved the outline of a social order
in India that enables members to pass normally from step
to step in the ladder of life smoothly using the experience
of ages and lifting their personalities to higher planes.

The individual career is distinguished into brdhmacharya,
garhasthya , vanaprastha and sanydsa. In the first, we have
the student absorbing the cultural heritage, assimilating
truth, science, philosophy, law and the arts. In the second
we have him fulfilling his duties as a member of society
and as head of his household. The householder pays taxes,
supports the state and does charity. The second half of
life prepares the individual to detach himself from involvement
in the detail of existence to contemplate the eternal. The
values of life including the relations of the sexes in family
and outside offer a pattern that is of universal value. It
helps to make the best of life, with enjoyment, achievement
and serenity in perfect equipoise. This is the ashrama dharma
whose sociological value remains for fruitful assimilation
today even in the West.

The social order has another aspect namely the duties
and rights of different vocational groups — viz., swadharmas.
In addition to universal values like truth speaking, non-
stealing, non-injury etc., Indian ethics recognises particular
vocations — thinkers and men of worship i. e., free devotees
of Truth and God or Nature or Reality; warriors and
administrators, executives etc., traders and manufacturers
and transporters, agriculturists and cattle tenders and
breeders etc. These classes emerge in the course of social
differentiation in any progressive society. If their duties are
laid down and social expectations are crystallised in society
so that everyone will know what is expected of him— his
rights as well as duties, a harmonious social order wi
result spontaneously. The present society will throw all
careers open to talent on the basis of swadharma or duty
springing from one’s vocation and karma and guna , character
and conduct.

XXX 11

No Class War

Another advantage of the Indian view of society is
that it eschews class-war. It postulates social harmony as
a potentiality, if not as a fully actual order of laws and
customs, observances and enforcements.

Dharma as determinant of the conduct of groups and
individuals lays down a synthesis of the claims of conflicting
parties. A study of the conflict impartially from the
standpoint of the service involved, the function performed
in society by the conflicting parties, will reveal the elements
of the truth and justice in each party’s claims. Dharma will
come to mean an expression and crystallisation of the
synthesis of interests and values revealed by the panchayat.
This is the source of the long-standing Indian faith in the
panchayat way of settling disputes. It is democratic, scientific
and moralistic at the same time.

The destructive idea of class-war or irreconcilable
antagonism between different functions and classes is therefore
successfully avoided on the Indian scheme.

The use of the word dharma does not preclude the
inclusion of different sects and religious fellowships who may
use different words for the same meanings — like the Muslim
and Christian. The substance of the thought and procedure
and value is non-sectarian and human in the plainest
sense.

Thus both from the standpoint of a philosophy of man
and nature as well as from the viewpoint of social good,
the Indian scheme is capable of affording a comprehensive
social philosophy able to furnish a saving pattern for
modem complex life — a social philosophy superior to
current violent and muddy theories of Marxism and
Freudianism.

Indian thought too has sound notions of the role of
the State as the agent of common good — raja dharma which
now may be designated rajya niti or rajya dharma. The
State should be above partial interests and should regulate
all activities according to dharma. The state is not a class

XXX111

agent of the upper class, according to Indian shastras or
political and social science. Nor is it an exploiting agency.
It is an agent of morality or dharma. It precludes socialism
in the sense of adding economic to the political power. The
State is not a trader or manufacturer but is entitled to
regulate all vocations. Thus Indian ideas help us to think
through current conflicts and social theories and arrive at
solutions more satisfactory because more truly based on
wide experience and matured reflection.

No doubt we may surpass the past but only by thinking
through them to new conclusions, not by ignoring them and
starting de novo.

Also, it is a waste of effort if we are to start from
scratch when great ideas are to hand for the asking. It is
like each scientist ignoring all previous discoveries and
starting from scratch from a false notion of originality !

It is not national chauvinism but sober common sense
to build on the foundations already well and truly laid.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is not merely a
school for teaching ideas and ideals. It is a school for
practical education in character building. As already men-
tioned, the volunteers are trained in a series of camps in
which through songs, participated life in common, discussions
on history and national ideals and national heroes, drill
and physical exercises etc., habits and motives for service
of the motherland are built into character. The influence
of example is fully made use of.

Day-to-day meetings of swayamsevaks in shakhas or
branches, bigger gatherings on the occasion of national
festivals and The celebration of the Days of heroes and
ectures and demonstrations and other ways inculcate courage,
discipline, sense of service to society, respect for elders and
the learned etc. This is a unique system of training the
young in the land in full consonance with the proved ideals
and practice of Indian culture.

Not a whisper of hatred of any one is heard in the camp
or routine activities of the volunteers. Only the positive

xxxiv

image of the Mother country is made to occupy the entire
mind and heart of the swayamsevak.

“It is our dharma to see that our society, which we
consider as our great mother, is made powerful, great and
happy. It is this innate love and adoration for our own
people, this positive faith in our own national being that
has been the constant urge for all our actions. True love of
that type is not dependent upon external situations. Nor
is it born out of them. It takes is roots deep in our hearts
reminding us of the duty towards our nation every moment
of our life. It makes us conscious that we belong to this
great and sacred motherland, that we owe a deep debt of
gratitude to her and that every action of ours must be a
dedication in her cause. ”

(Chapter XIV)

The thoughts of the present Leader collected in these
pages and presented in English can be appreciated as the
adumbration of the Other Mind of Modern Indian Leader-
ship neglected by the more prominent exotic Gandhian
Congress Leadership. It will be seen how full, how
positive, how patriotic, how practical and idealistic at the
same time, the principles and methods of nation building
adopted by the Sangh are. It will be seen that the Sangh
is the indispensable basic corrective to all other current
efforts to furnish the foundations of national reconstruc-
tions and inspiration for national regeneration on sound
lines. It is not sectarian but national. And its nationalism
gives room for all nationals who enter into the spirit of
spiritual nationalism and patriotism in a life of social
service of which defence is not the least ingredient.
Readiness for service and even sacrifice is the chief motif
of the movement.

Bangalore

28th April 1960 M. A. Venkata Rao

Part C3ne

The IVlission

I

Our World Mission

Present mental complex— Hindus, the first world thought-
givers — The world of conflicts — Theories born to root out
nationalism — Failure; ex: Communism in Russia —
Various experiments at synthesis of nations — Failure —
The dilemma — Our solution: Inner Bond for human
unity — Hindus alone equipped for World Mission — The
first step .

M ANY people in our country today hold the view that
any venture that we undertake should be broad-
based on a grand world-thought capable of rendering good
to the whole of humanity eschewing all narrow limitations
of country, community or religion. In support of this
view, some proclaim that in this age of missiles and rockets
distance has vanished, the boundaries of countries have
become meaningless and the whole world has shrunk.
They, therefore, feel that the very concept of country,
nation etc., has become outdated, that the spirit of world
unity alone should inspire all our activities. They conclude
that the modern ‘isms’ which have taken up 4 internationa-
lism’ as their watchword can alone lead us to that cherished
goal.

Now, the question that naturally poses itself before us
is ‘how far is the task of reorganising the national life of

2

Bunch of Thoughts

Hindus taken up by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
in conformity with the spirit of world unity and human
good?

The First in the Field

At the very outset, let it be made clear that it is not
the modern thinkers who are the first in the field to think
in terms of world unity and universal welfare. Long long
ago, in fact, long before the so-called modern age had set
in, the seers and savants of this land had delved deep into
this vital question. The ideal of human unity, of a world
free from all traces of conflict and misery has stirred our
hearts since times immemorial. Our one constant prayer all
through the ages has been

srfsfir gfer: sra; fflrrw:

(Let everyone be "hajpjpy, let everyone be free from all ills.)
While the present-day West has not been able to go
beyond the motto of ‘the greatest good of the greatest
numbers’, we have never tolerated the idea of a single
human being — why, of even a single living organism — being
miserable. ‘ Total good of all beings ’ has always been our
glorious ideal.

The Two Sides

But, coming to the plane of the present-day world, we
are faced with the hard reality of the all-round discord
and disruption ravaging human society. Today, humanity
is divided and subdivided into so many small exclusive
groups called nations or states, each one of them devoted
to its own narrow self-interest. And it is a matter of
common experience that wherever there are groups inspired
only by self-interest, there is bound to be mutual conflict.
Obviously, human unity and welfare is impossible so long
as this type of conflict continues. This present state of
strifes and wars resulting in human destruction and
misery has led many thinkers to conclude that the senti-
ment of nationalism which nourishes exclusive self-interest

Our World Mission

3

is the major obstacle on the way to world unity and
human welfare. They, therefore, declare that nationalism
should be rooted out from the minds of men all over the
world. The Communist ideology which claims internationalism
as its sheet-anchor often talks in this strain.

On the other hand, there is another school of thought
which holds that the roots of nationalism are so deep and
long-standing that it is impossible to destory them. Soviet
Russia which sought to discard nationalism in a bid to
take to international communism soon learnt by experience
that destruction of this sentiment deprives the people of
the incentive for dedicated effort. In the first flush of
revolution, material progress was no doubt achieved in
Russia in a certain measure. Their first few Seven Year
Plans were to an extent successful. But, by and by, the
enthusiasm of the people began to wane, their incentive
for work began to die away. Eventually, labour in big
factories had to be forced to work at the point of bayonet.
And again, during the Second World War, when Hitler’s
tanks were relentlessly pressing forward on the Russian
soil, the slogan of ‘Internationalism’ and 4 Communism’
failed to enthuse the Russian people. This served as an
eye-opener to the Russian leaders who found it absolutely
essential to rouse the dormant patriotic sentiments of the
Russian people by invoking their age-old loyalty to motherland
and their heroic ancestors. It is evident, therefore, that
it is devotion to motherland, society and tradition experienced
under the concept of nation that inspires real service and
sacrifice in the individual.

The Abortive Experiments

We can thus conclude that nationalism cannot and
should not be destroyed. Then the problem boils down
to one of achieving a synthesis of national aspirations
and world welfare. Syntheses of various kinds have been,
in fact, attempted from time to time in the past. Imperi-
alism has sometimes claimed to be one such large scale

4

Bunch of Thoughts

effort to eliminate conflicts between smaller nations by
making them limbs of a single empire. But as it was
basically motivated by self-aggrandisement, leading to
revolts by the subject nations against their oppression
and exploitation, imperialism failed to eliminate national
conflicts .

The League of Nations, formed after the First World
War, was also an experiment in avoiding wars and achiev-
ing world unity. But hardly within two decades of its
birth, the League of Nations was shattered to pieces on
the rock of unbridled national ambitions and consequent
conflicts. A more terrible war than all the previous ones
besmirched the face of the earth with death and destruc-
tion. The UNO too, formed after the Second World War,
is faring no better. Our own experience in the case of
Kashmir issue tells us that it is incapable of meting out
justice, of pulling up the erring members and bringing
about an honourable amity among nations. It has been
converted into an arena for national conflicts, the powerful
nations trying to dominate its forum to further their expan-
sionists ends. The world is overcast with the dark clouds of
a third world war which may mean the sudden and total end
of the present civilisation itself.

We thus see that nations are not prepared to come
together in a spirit of amity for the welfare of mankind.
On the contrary, the national entities are getting more and
more exclusive and their ambitions whetted day by day.
Newer nations are also coming up on the world stage.
The entire face of the world is covered with national
conflicts.

In short, nationalism cannot be destroyed; all attempts
to harmonise the national ambitions so far have also
utterly failed; and the world is on the brink of a nuclear
holocaust. Then, which way lies the salvation for
humanity? No answer to this challenge seems to be forth-
coming. Thinkers all over the world are on the horns of a
dilemma.

Our World Mission

5

The Inner bond of Unity

However, we Hindus have a solution to offer. But
our solution is not based on materialism. All the attempts
and experiments made so far were based on theories or
* isms’ stemming from materialism. And materialism has
no answer to the very salient and fundamental question:
“Why at all should people aspire for world unity and
human welfare? Why should they at all feel pained at
the sight of man set against man? Why should we at all
love each other?” From the materialist point of view
we are all equally gross entities, each separate and ex-
clusive in itself, who can have no bonds of mutual affinity
or affection. There can also be no inner restraint in such
beings which can make them control their selfishness from
running amuck, in the interest of the humanity as a
whole.

After all, any arrangement evolved for achieving world
welfare can be fruitful only to the extent the men behind
it are inspired by real love for mankind which will enable
them to mould their individual and national conduct in tune
with the welfare of humanity. Without that supreme urge,
any scheme, however good its intention may be, will only
provide one more alluring mask for the self-aggrandisement
of power-drunk nations. That has been the uniform verdict
of history right up to the present times.

Our ancient Hindu philosophers, therefore, had turned
their gaze to a plane higher than materialism. They delved
deep into the mysteries of the ^human soul, well beyond
the reach of material science, and discovered the Ultimate
Reality which pervades all Creation, the one great
common principle present in all beings, whatever the name
we may give it— Soul, God, Truth, Reality or Nothingness.
It is the occasional realisation of this common entity
that inspires us to strive for the happiness of others.
The < V in me, being the same as the * I ’ in the other
^eings, makes me react to the joys and sorrows of my
fellow living beings just as I react to my own. This genuine

6

Bunch of Thoughts

feeling of identity born out of the community of the inner
entity is the real driving force behind our natural urge
for human unity and brotherhood. Thus it is evident that
world unity and human welfare can be made real only to
the extent mankind realises this common Inner Bond
which alone can subdue the passions and discords stemming
from materialism, broaden the horizon of the human mind
and harmonise the individual and national aspirations with
the welfare of mankind.

The Right Way

Now, we come to the second question. How will that
One Common Substratum manifest itself in the complicated
organism of human society? Will it result in eliminating
all distinctive features of nations and roll them all into one
uniform pattern ? Or will it make the various groups of
people come together in a spirit of comradeship realising
the innate oneness of mankind while preserving their individual
nationalities ?

Here again, our philosophers have unmistakably
pointed out the path of real human happiness. Just as
an individual, a nation — an aggregate of individuals — too
has an individuality all its own. Individuals and nations
in all parts of the globe have distinctive traits and fea-
tures, each of them having its own place in the scheme of
the universe. The different human groups are marching
forward all towards the same goal, each in its own way
and in keeping with its own genius. The destruction of
the special characteristics, whether of an individual or of a
group, will therefore not only destroy the natural beauty
of harmony but also its joy of self-expression. Evolution
of human life also, which is a multifaced one, is retarded
thereby.

For, it is a matter of common experience that it is
only by developing one’s unique characteristic that man
rises to his full stature and enjoys bliss and happiness. So^
to seek harmony among the various characteristics has

Our World Mission

7

been our special contribution to the world thought. The
oft-quoted feature of our racial genius, that is, of recognising
unity amidst diversity, stems from this deep appreciation
of the principles that water the roots of human unity,
human happiness and evolution. Thus, in short, we stand
for a harmonious synthesis among nations and not their
obliteration. Needless to say, the idea of creating a stateless
condition levelling all human beings to one particular plane
of physical existence, erasing their individual and group
traits, is foreign to us. The World State of our concept
will, therefore, evolve out of a federation of autonomous
and self-contained nations under a common centre linking
them all.

The Sacred Trust

It is clear, therefore, that the mission of reorganising the
Hindu People on the lines of their unique national genius
which the Sangh has taken up is not only a great process of
true national regeneration of Bharat but also the inevitable
precondition to realise the dream of world unity and
human welfare. For, as we have seen, it is the grand world-
unifying thought of Hindus alone that can supply the
abiding basis for human brotherhood, that knowledge of
the Inner Spirit which will charge the human mind with
the sublime urge to toil for the happiness of mankind,
while opening out full and free scope for every small life-
speciality on the face of the earth to grow to its full
stature.

This knowledge is in the safe custody of Hindus alone.
It is a divine trust, we may say, given to the charge of
the Hindus by Destiny. And when a person possesses
a treasure, a duty is laid upon him to safeguard it and
make it available for the welfare of others. If he fails
in that supreme duty he ruins not only himself but also
others. Hence the sacred duty of preserving the Hindu
Society in sound condition has devolved upon us.

How can we say that it is the Hindu Society alone

8

Bunch of Thoughts

that can fulfil this grand world mission and none else ?
This may at first sight appear to be rather too proud a
claim. Nevertheless it is a bare statement of fact which
we can readily appreciate when we observe the historical
processes at work in our land as well as in other countries.
History has recorded that it is in this land alone that,
right from the hoary times, generation after generation of
thinkers and philosophers, seers and sages rose to unravel
the mysteries of human nature, dived deep into the world
of Spirit and discovered and perfected the science of realisation
of that Great Unifying Principle. The penance and sacrifice
and experience of hundreds of centuries of a whole nation
is there as the inexhaustible fountain-head of this knowledge
to assuage the spiritual thirst of the world.

The outside world, on the other hand, did not take to
the study of this science of Spirit. Even to this day, they
have remained extroverts habituated to studying the outer
world through their senses. The senses too go outward
and as such they cannot lead to the vision of the inward
nature. The Westerners, therefore, have remained ignorant
of the knowledge and experience of the world of
Spirit however much they might have unravelled the
mysteries of the world of matter. Our ancestors who, on
the other hand, crossed to realms beyond the senses could
see within and have a glimpse of that glorious Inner
Reality.

Success in Practice

Further, it was not mere dry knowledge confined to
the intellectual speculations of a few thinkers sitting in
their forest hermitages. It was a living thought driving
our ancestors — thinkers, administrators, merchants, scientists,
artists and philosophers — to reach distant lands carrying
that message of world brotherhood. Wherever they stepped,
they taught the local people the spiritual and cultural values
of life, taught them the sciences of material prosperity
as well and built up a homogeneous brotherhood of

Our World Mission

9*

nations under their benign wings. Our Hindu Society,,
strong, self-confident and self-effulgent, provided the uni-
fying pivot for that far-flung empire of the Spirit.

Our arms stretched as far as America on the one side
— that was long long before Columbus ‘discovered’ Ame-
rica!— and on the other side to China, Japan, Cambodia*
Malaya, Siam, Indonesia and all the South-East Asian
countries and right up to Mongolia and Siberia in the
North. Our powerful political empire too spread over
these South-East areas and continued for 1,400 years, the
Shailendra empire alone flourishing for over 700 years —
standing as a powerful bulwark against Chinese ex-
pansion.

During all those centuries, there were neither uprisings,
by the local people nor their exterminations which would
have been the inevitable result if there had been the slightest
sign of domination or exploitation by a foreign people and
a foreign culture. On the contrary, those people were
grateful to us. They adored our nation and longed to give
up their mortal coils on the banks of Ganga. That stands
in glowing contrast to the bloodstained pages of the history of
expansion of Islam, Christianity and now Communism and
of the various ‘world conquerors’ produced by other countries.
Even to this day, the basic life-pattern of many of those
people is Hindu. They bear Hindu names. We find so*
many Hindu faces all over there, proud of their Hindu
heritage, even though many of them are now Muslims by
religion. In Philippines a marble statue of Manu is placed
in the Court Hall with the inscription : 44 The first, the greatest
and the wisest lawgiver of mankind.”

Our society which has given rise to such great souls,
all down the centuries— each one of them a lustrous star
on the horizon of world thought— is still throwing up a.
host of such luminaries right up to the present-day like a
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who could identify him-
self not merely with the joys and sorrows of human beings
but with all animate and inanimate objects as well!

10

Bunch of Thoughts

When he saw a cow thrashed with a whip, he shrieked
-with pain and red stripes were found on his back ! On
another occasion, a bullock grazing on a meadow left a
bruised imprint of its hoof on his chest. Such is the extent
•of identification that our great teachers of the science of
Spirit have attained and preached.

The First Step

However, today, such a glorious heritage is being con-
demned and brushed aside by its own children. It has be-
come a fashion these days to deride our ancient ideals
and traditions and talk of recasting our society in the
mould of other modern ‘isms’. But such attempts at sup-
planting our life-pattern by another, paying no heed to the
natural blossoming of our innate character, can only result
in degeneration. Already we are witnessing the signs of
its dreadful effect on our society. Disorganised and diffi-
dent, our society has become an easy prey to all predatory
forces prowling about under the garb of various ‘isms’
and religions. How can a society given to self- derision,
weakened by all-round disruption and dissipation, kicked
and humiliated at every point by any and every bully in
the world, teach the world? How can one, devoid of the
urge or the capacity to ennoble one’s own life, show the
path of greatness to others?

It is inevitable, therefore, that in order to be able to
■contribute our unique knowledge to mankind, in order to
be able to live and strive for the unity and welfare of the
world, we stand before the world as a self-confident,
resurgent and mighty nation. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh has resolved to fulfil that age-old national mission
by forging, as the first step, the present-day scattered
■elements of the Hindu Society into an organised and
invincible force both on the plane of the Spirit and on the
plane of material life. Verily this is the one real practical
world mission — if ever there was one.

n

Challenge of the Times

Birth of Democracy as a reaction— The evil of Capital-
ism — Next reaction, Communism — Falsity of its
prophecy and promise, ex: Russia— Both theories shifting
from original stand— Both stemming from materialism —
Failure as a theory — Wrong concept of equality— Our
view of individual and society— Man, not system,
important.

A FTER the British have left our country we are faced
with the problem of deciding the right pattern for-
our future national reconstruction. There are two major
patterns of social set-up which are in vogue in the modern,
world.

Fate of First Reaction

One, the older of the two, is called Democracy. It:
originated as a reaction to the unbridled monarchy
in the countries of Europe. The individual was then a.
mere serf, devoid of all initiative and freedom, just a toy
in the hands of the ‘divine’ kings. People rose in revolt,
overthrew ‘the divine right of kingship’ and smashed the-
power of monarchy for all time. The inspiring slogan
‘liberty, equality and fraternity’, was on the lips of every-
body. It was loudly trumpeted from housetops that the-
long dark night of slavery and tyranny had finally ended.

ll

12

Bunch of Thoughts

and a new era of ‘individual freedom’, ‘sanctity of the
individual rights’ and ‘equality of opportunity for all’
bad dawned.

But, by about the same time, the age of machine also
had set in. Industries began to flourish. Science and
technology began helping industrialists to set up bigger
.and bigger plants. Millions of labourers were employed
in those engines of mass production. Under the slogan of
•‘equality of opportunity’ persons with greater intelligence
and wealth monopolised all those new avenues of produc-
tion of wealth and became the unchallenged financial over-
lords. On the strength of their overwhelming power of
money they even captured the political machinery. And
the common people were left high and dry except for a
■solitary political right to vote which too they were not free
to use under the oppressive economic conditions.

Thus the high-sounding concept of ‘ individual freedom ’
only meant the freedom of those talented few to exploit
the rest of the common people and reduce them to abject
serfdom. The horrible conditions of the labourers — men,
women and even children — working in those factories
defied all description. They were now groaning under the
heels of the new tyrants in place of the old.

Tragedy of Second Reaction

It was at this stage that Communism came up as a
reaction against the new tyranny of Capitalism. Communism
started with the assumption that industrial revolution
was bound to result in dire economic disparity, giving
rise to two classes, the ‘ haves ’ (Capitalists) and the ‘ have-nots ’
(Proletariat, i. e., working class). There would, therefore?
ensue a class conflict in which, they again assumed, the
proletariat would come out victorious. After that, there
would be an end to the misery of the masses as the state, run
by the working class, would take over the entire burden
of looking after the material needs of the people by con-
trolling all means of production and distribution of wealth.

Challenge of the Times

1 $

Thus, it was prophesied that greater the industrialisation?
of a country, greater the economic disparity and therefore,,
greater the class conflict and sooner the ushering in of the
rule of the proletariat.

But this prophecy— which was the climax of its.
materialistic interpretation of history — was completely
belied by the future course of history. Out of all countries-
it was in Russia, industrially a most backward country,
that Communist revolution registered its first success.
Even to this day countries like America, England and
Germany which are in the forefront of industrial progress —
in fact, where the industrial revolution first took shape —
have not shown any signs of advancing towards Commu-
nism. On the contrary, it was China, another industrially
backward country, which has become Communist in
recent years. Thus the claim of historical inevitability
of Communism based on its materialistic interpretation
of human history has been shattered on the rock of
hard realities.

Secondly, what is the condition of the common people
in that promised land of freedom, peace and plenty?'
It is all too well known that the ‘dictatorship of the
proletariat’ has been reduced to the dictatorship of the-
dictator of the dictatorial party i. e., the Communist,
in these countries. The mass liquidations, slave camps,,
communes, forced labour, brain-washing and all such
inhuman engines of dictatorship have reduced the individual,
to such low depths of misery and slavery as was unheard
of even under the unbridled kingship or during the-
worst days of Capitalism. That is how their call of ‘you.
have nothing to lose but your chains ’ to the masses has resulted,
in practice !

The Promise and the Performance

Have they, at least, succeeded in their goal of meeting-
the primary material needs of their people, which was-
their first promise to them? Take the example of Russia,.

14

Bunch of Thoughts

the first great country which made the experiment in
a thorough-going manner. They liquidated all private
property, all the industrialists and took over all industries
in their own hands. On the agricultural front, they liquidated
all the landlords and the peasants, grouped them into
communes and collective farms. So, it was from all aspects
a thorough-going experiment. Naturally we ought to expect
a tremendous growth in the prosperity of Russia during the
past fifty years.

Some say, “Look, they have been able to send a
rocket to the moon.” But so far as the masses, in
whose name they speak, are concerned, going to the moon
is not their main problem. Belly is their major problem.
It was, in fact, the main pivot of the Communist revolution.
Have the Russian Government been able to give two
square meals to the residents of their country? That is
the first question. As a matter of fact the success of any
government or any particular theory of government is to
be measured in terms of its capacity to give every citizen
two square meals, a place to rest in, sufficient clothing,
treatment in case of illness, and education. That is the
acid test.

Has Russia answered this test? Russia has an exten-
sive territory. At one time, it was the greatest wheat-
producing country in the world. In proportion, the population
is small and so a smaller number of mouths to feed.
They have all the modern implements of agriculture.
Added to that are the colossal resources of the all-powerful
State at the back of each and every plan. In spite of all
these, in order to feed the resident citizens of Russia,
the Russian Government has to actually import wheat and
other edibles from Canada, from USA and other countries.
A more convincing proof of the utter defeat of Communism
need not be called for now!

The Grand Retreat of Both

Faced with such tragic consequences, the Communist

Challenge of the Times

15

countries, too, are having second thoughts about their
system of absolute governmentalisation. They have begun
to realise that the destruction of individual freedom kills'
the creative urge and incentive for work in the individual.
They are, therefore, gradually moving towards individual
freedom. They are being compelled, as in some East
European Communist countries and even in Russia, to
allow the individual to own a few things and a little freedom
to enjoy his property.

Chester Bowles of America has stated: “Russia is
now allowing, what are called, "kitchen farms’ to be
personally cultivated by farmers to the tune of 34% of
the total land they cultivate. But the production from
these 34% personal holdings (which do not have the benefit
of heavy farm-machinery which is all monopolised by the
State) has been 60% of the total produce whereas 66%
of the State-owned farms has yielded but 40%. ” That
has once again proved that the premise of total govern-
mentalisation i. e., absolute collectivism, with which
they started is beating a hasty retreat in the land of its;
own birth.

On the other hand, those countries where Democracy
was born with the premise of "absolute individualism’'
have also gone back upon their original stand. Having
seen the tragic results of the unrestrained ‘equality of
opportunity’ and of "freedom of the individual’, they were
forced to undertake drastic measures to curtail in practice
those theoretical concepts in the interest of the common
social good. In fact, that is how they were able to
avoid revolution and maintain their democratic-
structure.

We thus find that both the above theories, Democracy
and Communism, have two things in common i. e., both
were born as reactions to the previous order and both
have had to resile from their original stand and forced to
move towards each other — Democracy from its individua-
lism towards collectivism and Communism from its

16

Bunch of Thoughts

collectivism towards individualism. In respect of both biith
and growth there is a remarkable similarity though, of
course, their starting points were opposites because of
historical reasons.

Stemming from the Same Root

This need not cause any surprise to us, for if we go
deeper and get at the roots we find that both of them
stem from a common concept of the goal of human life.
According to the Western thought — from which both the
concepts of Democray and Communism took birth — the
life of man for all practical purposes is limited to the
physical plane. And the human being is just a bundle of
physical wants. Accordingly, production and distribution
of material objects which were believed to satisfy the
material appetites of man became the one all-consuming
passion of all their theories. Further, equality of man
was propounded on the material plane because all men
were equally in need of all these basic material needs.

As the individual was only a physical entity goaded
entirely by those physical desires, there was no reason
for him to look upon society as anything more than
an instrument to serve his needs- But a society made
up of such individuals exclusively dedicated to their own
selfish interests could not be expected to endure even for
a day. Society, for its sustenance, demands a spirit
of sacrifice on the part of its constituents. And without
society, individuals also cannot carry on their physical
existence. So a sort of compromise, a contract, had to be
worked out between the conflicting interests of the individual
and the society.

This 4 contract theory 5 is thus the result of the concept
of an inherent conflict between the individual and the
society. It is this basic conflict that expressed itself in
the form of Capitalism on the one hand and Communism
on the other i.e., on the one hand, the individual becoming
the enemy of society and on the other, the society becoming

Challenge of the Times

17

the enemy of the individual. And as we have seen, both
the systems are now trying to mitigate the evils that
have flowed from their common materialistic concept of human
goal.

Materialism Fails

But to identify man with a mere bundle of material
desires is to equate him with an animal. If man is just an
animal, why should he lead an amicable and ordered life?
All that can be said is that human beings do not prey
upon one another like animals, simply because if X wants
to devour Y, some Z will try to devour X. Thus, to
prevent themselves from being mutually destroyed, some
sort of arrangement is to be arrived at. But it cannot
explain why the will to sacrifice for others, the spirit of
comradeship in misery, should at all rise in the mind of
man. But all through the history of mankind we come
across such persons who have sacrificed their lives for
others willingly, lovingly and smilingly. There is the story
of Dadhichi in our ancient literature who volunteered to
offer his bones to be made into a weapon to destroy the
demon Vrittrasura. He was a seer living in the forest.
As an individual he desired nothing. Then, what made him
to sacrifice himself ?

Let us take an instance of this twentieth century.
Once in Calcutta, two little children playing on the road-
side fell into an open manhole. A gentleman who
was hurrying to his office, happened to see the children
suddenly disappear in the manhole. Without even waiting
to take off his coat he jumped into the manhole, caught
hold of the children who were being washed away in the
current and pushed them outside. But he himself was
caught in the mud and died! Why did he die? What is it
that told him, “ Go, that is your direction ” ? Materialism does
not explain.

18

Bunch of Thoughts

The Real Basis

There is only one explanation. And that is, there is
one common Living Reality in all of us which furnishes
the common inner bond. Our philosophy calls it Atma ,
We love and serve one another not because of the external
relations, but because of the community of that Atma,
Yagnavalkya tells Maitreyi :

qfa: fWr

qn'^rR' qfo fsnrt i

(0 Maitreyi! Man is not loved (by wife ) because he is the
husband , but that there is Alma in him.) It is in this
sense, i.e., the same spirit being immanent in all, that all
men are equal. Equality is applicable only on the plane
of the Supreme Spirit. But on the physical plane the same
Spirit manifests itself in a wondrous variety of diversities and
disparities.

According to our philosophy, the very projection of the
Universe is due to a disturbance in the equilibrium of its three
attributes — sattva, rajas and tamas — and if there is a ‘ gunasdmya \
perfect balance of the three attributes, then the Universe
will dissolve back to the Unmanifest State. Thus, disparity
is an indivisible part, of nature and we have to live with
it. Our efforts should be only to keep it in limits and take
away the sting born out of disparity.

False Prophets

So any arrangement that tries to remove the inherent
disparities altogether on the basis of superficial equality is
bound to fail. Democracy, even at this advanced stage in
the Western countries, is after all the rule by a few who are
well versed in the art of politics and capable of winning the
masses to their line. The concept of Democracy as being
‘by the people’ and ‘of the people’, meaning that all are
equal sharers in the political administration, is to a very large
extent only a myth in practice.

Communism, too, has completely failed to realise any

Challenge of the Times

19

of its declared concepts of equality. It had envisaged that
after the establishment of the dictatorship of proletariat all
will have food and other necessities of life satisfied. Then
there will be no room for mutual conflict thus obviating
the necessity for a central authority. Thus the State withers
away and a governmentless 4 anarchic ’ society will come into
being. According to Communism, that is the highest state of
equality that man can conceive of.

But Communism, based as it is on materialism, cannot
explain how that ideal state can come to life. If men are
mere animals i.e., mere material beings, they do not devour
each other only because of the fear of the powers that be.
But when this power or authority is no more, then why
will they live without strife ? Man as an animal is a
victim of passions and passions get more intense when
gratified. How then will such a dissatisfied man live in
peace and love with others? And what guarantee is there
that even after satisfaction of his personal needs, man,
who is more ingenious than other animals, will not follow
the ‘dog-in-the-manger’ policy? So even if we suppose
that equality is established, it will again lead to inequality.
Thus another bloody revolution will be necessitated. Which
means, violent upheavals and strifes are the corner-stones
of this theory. To raise always the slogan of revolution
is to encourage and invite armed strife, anarchy and murder
of peace.

The picture which is thus visualised neither contains
any signs of the withering away of the central power nor
any possibility of the emergence of peace after the dis-
appearance of the authority even if by chance it takes place.
That during the past fifty years the Communist State in
Russia has not shown any signs of withering away but has
grown all the more powerful, is a living proof of the utter
falsity of its theoretical base.

Not Equality but Harmony

Our philosophy, on the other hand, has pictured the

20

Bunch of Thoughts

highest state of society and given its cogent explanation too.
It is described as:

(There existed no state, no king, no penalty and no criminal .
All protected one another by virtue of dharma.) Dharma is
the code of right conduct that awakens the Common Inner
Bond, restrains selfishness, and keeps the people together in
that harmonious state even without external authority.
There will be no selfishness, no hoarding and all men will
live and work for the whole.

And it is dharma that is the distinguishing feature of
human life.

spff ff ftmt Wi wf*r: i

(Food, sleep , fear and lust are common to both — animal
and man. The special attribute of man is dharma; without it he
is no better than an animal.)

It is through the full manifestation of dharma in
human life that human beings will be able to live in that
state of highest harmony in spite of having inherent
disparities in nature. It is like the co-operation of a blind
man with a lame man. The lame man gets a leg and
the blind man an eye. The spirit of co-operation takes away
the sting of disparity.

Our view of the relation between individual and
society has always been not one of conflict but of harmony
and co-operation born out of a consciousness of a single
Reality running through all the individuals. The individual
is a living limb of the corporate social personality.
Both individual and society supplement and complement
each other with the result that both get strengthened and
benefited.

Challenge of the Times

21

Mistaking Means for Ends

The essential point, therefore, is the moulding of
individuals after the real image of man imbued with the
■sublime principles of innate oneness and harmony i.e., of
41iarma. Indeed, a system works ill or well according as
-the men who work it are bad or good. That is why, in
the absence of men inspired with the right spirit,
Democracy deteriorates into ‘mediocracy ’ and is often
reduced to ‘mobocracy’. The tragedy of the various
theories and 4 isms ’ propounded by the West is that they
were taken to be the ends in themselves to the utter
neglect of building the quality of man. They ignored the
simple yet fundamental truth that systems and * isms’ are
at best only means for the fulfilment of man’s life.
It is mistaking the means for the ends that has landed
these attempts in results diametrically opposite to what
they prophesied or expected.

Even to this day, democratic countries are plagued by
grave social problems arising out of this basic confusion of
placing system above man. The system of Democracy
that they have evolved breeds two evils— self-praise and
vilification of others— that poison the peace and tranquillity
■of the human mind and disrupt the mutual harmony of
individuals in society. In their present set-up both these
.are to be freely indulged in during elections.

That is the reason why in our national tradition, we
did not bother much about the external form of the
government but concentrated upon the moulding of man as
the chief guiding factor in all our systems. Many forms
were tried here right from republic to monarchy. And
we find that the monarchy, which bred such tyranny and
.gave rise to bloody revolutions in the West, was found to
be a highly beneficial institution continuing for thousands of
years showering peace and prosperity on the whole of our
people, with the spirit of freedom alive in every sphere of
ilife.

TIT Call of Our National Soul

Revival, not reaction — Culture , indefinable yet all-
absorbing — Nation as God— True spirit of service —
Not rights but duty — Unity in diversity — To raise
the average — Present perversions — Watering roots of
immortality .

O UR concept of Hindu Nation is not a mere bundle of
political and economic rights. It is essentially a
cultural one. Our ancient and sublime cultural values of
life form its life-breath. And it is only an intense rejuvenation
of the spirit of our culture that can give us a true vision
of our national life, and a fruitful direction to all our
efforts in solving the innumerable problems confronting our
nation today.

But these days, rejuvenation of culture is often dubbed
as ‘revivalism’ and ‘reactionary 5 . Revival of old prejudices*
superstitions or anti-social customs may be called re-
actionary, as that would result in fossilisation of society.
But rejuvenation of eternal and ennobling values of life
can never be reactionary. To dub it as reactionary merely
because it is old only betrays intellectual bankruptcy
and nothing else. By rejuvenation of our culture we
mean the reliving of those eternal life-ideals that have
nourished and immortalised our national life all these millennia.

22

Call of Our National Soul

23

Too Fine to be Defined

People sometimes ask, “How do you define Hindu
Culture?” Well, we feel it, though we cannot define it.
There are some who deny it altogether merely because
they cannot define it. They say, “What is the use of a
thing which we cannot define?” But will this argument
stand to reason? For example, the entire course of
medical science is evolved in order to protect life. But
even the most modern scientists have not been able to
define what ‘life’ is. But that has not come in the way of
the utility of medical science. The outward manifestation of
* life ’ and its impact on man is sufficient to convince us of its
actuality.

So also, our sentiments, ideals and aspirations have
a reality of their own and have a very vital role in our
life even though they cannot be expressed in terms of
definitions and mathematical equations. In fact, it is
such subtle factors that form the real human personality
rather than such gross things as can be measured and
defined.

Truth Defies Denials

Our culture too, though defying definition, has left
its indelible stamp on all walks of our life. We can
recognise the element of culture in all such manifestations.
There is an example in the life of Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru. He used to view the problems of life mainly
from the materialist standpoint. Things like God, religion,
soul, transmigration of soul etc., had no meaning for him.
Then a time came when unfortunately his wife, who was
taken abroad for medical treatment, died. According to
our custom her body was cremated— not buried, but
cremated. It was reduced to a small handful of ashes.
What was to be done with it? An agnostic must say,
“This is merely ash and its only profitable use is to put
it in the field as manure. ” According to materialism
there is no point in showing any consideration to mere

24

Bunch of Thoughts

ash. “Dust thou art and to dust thou returnest” is all
that it can say.

There was an intense tussle in Pandit Nehru’s mind —
between the agnostic in him calling upon him to throw away
the ashes in that foreign land and return, and the call oT
his ancient Hindu blood urging him to bring those sacred
relics of his beloved wife and offer them in the bosom of
Ganqamata. Finally the ancient samskars won. The ashes
were brought to our land and immersed at the holy con-
fluence of Ganga, Yamuna and the invisible Saraswati at
Prayag. As Pandit Nehru himself said later, his intellect, his-
modern education and training were all in revolt but something-
in him, something inexplicable, forced him to immerse the
ashes in the Triveni-sangam. This is samskdr , the imprint of
culture.

What then are the manifestations of that culture in our
national life?

The Living God

The first and the most fundamental aspect is the urge-
for realisation of the Supreme Reality permeating the
entire Universe — whatever the name given to it. Or in
simple words, it is ‘to realise God*. But where is God?’
How can we know Him? How does He look? What are-
His appearances, His attributes, that we may meditate
upon Him and realise Him ? The description that He
is nirakar (without form), nirquna (without attributes) and
all that leads us nowhere. Various ways of worship are-
also evolved. People go to temples and try to concentrate-
on the idols taking them to be emblems of the Almighty.
But all this does not satisfy us who are full of activity..
We want a ‘living’ God. What is the use of a God who-
only hears but does not respond ? These emblems neither
weep nor smile nor show any reaction, unless of course-
the persons are devotees of extraordinarily high merit.
But for all ordinary persons they are non-feeling emblems-
of the Almighty. Therefore we want a ‘living’ God which.

Call of Our National Soul

25

will engross us in activity and nvoke all the powers that
reside in our being.

Our forefathers therefore said, “ Our People is our
God.” Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, one of the greatest
teachers of mankind, said, ‘Serve man.’ His great disciple
Swami Yivekananda also stated the same emphatically.
But ‘ man \ in the sense of the whole of humanity, is a
very wide concept and as such, cannot be grasped easily
as a single solid entity for us to see and feel. Therefore
it is that so many who took up the idea of serving
humanity ended in inanity and inaction. Hence our
forefathers, understanding the limitations of the human
mind and intellect, said that ‘humanity’ and all that is
all right, but before one can rise to that stage, one should
take a view of the Almighty with certain limitations as it
were, which one can understand, feel and serve. The Hindu
People, they said, is the Virat Purusha , the Almighty
manifesting Himself. Though they did not use the word
4 Hindu ’, it is clear from the following description of the
Almighty in Purusha Sukta , wherein it is stated that the
sun and moon are His eyes, the stars and the skies are
created from His nabhi (navel) and

37^ TTFT 'TTSTT 3TTT STTHTd 1 1

(Brahmin is the head , King the hands , Vaishya the thighs and
Shudra the feet.) This means that the people who have this
fourfold arrangement, i.e., the Hindu People, is our God.

True Spirit of Service

This supreme vision of Godhead in society is the very
core of our concept of ‘nation’ and has permeated our
thinking and given rise to various unique concepts of our
cultural heritage.

That vision inspires us to look upon every individual
of our society as a part of that Divine Whole. All
individuals are therefore equally sacred and worthy of our

26

Bunch of Thoughts

service. Therefore any sense of discrimination amongst
them is reprehensible. Thus, in our culture, the spirit of
social service has been sublimated into worship of God.

There are millions of human beings all around us who
live in hunger and destitution, who are deprived of even
the barest necessities of life and whose stories of misery
will move the stoniest of hearts. It is verily God who has
taken those forms of the poor, the destitute and the
suffering. What for ? Does He want anything ? He is
the very embodiment of all power, all knowledge, and is
the Master of all. Then what is it that He wants? He
comes in those forms to give us an opportunity to serve
Him. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa called them Daridra
N dray ana (destitute God).

Once our life becomes soaked with this spirit of real
service, we will feel that all our individual and family
possessions, however abundant they may be, do not really
belong to us. These are only our means to worship God
in the form of society. Our whole life will then be an
offering in the service of society. The Upanishads say:

w I r wmt sra; i

hr tTOfa ^r^ft^rr: *nr to ii

(God permeates all Creation . Whatever is left over by Him ,
after offering Him , enjoy only that much . Do not rob what
belongs to others .)

Let us therefore acquire maximum of material wealth
so that we can serve God in the form of society in the best
possible manner. And out of all that wealth, only that
minimum should be used for our sake the denial of which
will hamper our capacity for service. To claim or to
make a personal use of more than that, is verily an act of
theft against society.

Manu has declared:

ftror vest TT^T FPT I

Call of Our National Soul

27

(Take whatever is essential for bodily sustenance. To take more
is an act of theft and deserves to be punished.)

Thus we are only the trustees of society. It is only
when we become true trustees that we can serve society
best. Such a pure attitude of service will leave no scope
for ego or self-adulation.

Duty in Place of Right

Today we hear everywhere the clamour for ‘rights’.
All our political parties too are rousing the ego in our
people by constantly speaking of their ‘rights’. Nowhere
is there any stress on ‘ duties ’ and a spirit of selfless
service. The spirit of co-operation which is the soul of
society can hardly survive in a climate of the conscious-
ness of egocentric rights. That is why we are finding
conflicts among the various component parts in our national
life today, whether it is between the teacher and the taught
or the labourer and the industrialist. It is only by an
assimilation of our cultural vision that the true spirit of
co-operation and consciousness of duty can be revived in our
national life.

Our Cultural Prism

One more peak of the Himalayan vision of our culture,
which none else in the world has so far aspired to climb, is
the spirit of (Truth is one , sages call

it variously ). There is no equivalent expression in English
to convey this beautiful sentiment. The word ‘ tolerance ’
which is often used to express this idea is very meek, it is
just another word for sufferance. It implies an element of ego
which just tolerates other viewpoints without any love or
respect for them. But our training has been one of respecting
and even accepting other faiths and viewpoints as so many
paths to reach the same Truth.

It is like the various descriptions of a hill by persons
who have gone by different routes to its top. One man
says that it appears like a single colossal rock, another

28

Bunch of Thoughts

says it is all forest and no rock, the third says it is full of
shrubs and so on. Everyone is correct though imperfect. The
sum total of all such imperfect descriptions gives us a complete
and perfect description of the hill. One by two or one by
three is a fraction. But by adding up all such fractions it is
possible to get a whole number, an integer.

In the same manner, individuals, though imperfect,
when merged into a corporate whole, can give rise to a
perfect society. And therefore, the superficial differences
born out of the imperfections of the individuals are only
indicative of the diverse manifestations of the one great
and perfect and mighty reality — the society. This
appreciation of the inherent spark of Truth, of Divinity in
every individual, has penetrated into our various compo-
nents and spheres of life — religious, social, political and
economic — and fashioned them for a harmonious pattern
of mutual goodwill and respect. This catholicity of spirit
is an altogether unique contribution of our culture to the world
thought.

Raising the Average

It is only when we revive these sublime features of
our culture that our people in general will be inspired by
the vision of our national life and break through their
present shell of personal and family and other parochial
considerations and rise high in character, service and
sacrifice. A nation cannot rise on an average of dwarfs
with only a few extraordinary personalities standing as
giants amidst them. To be endowed with extraordinary
qualities is the good fortune of a few. We bow down to
such souls, and having bowed down to them, still we, the
average men, ask the question of ourselves, “ What about us?”
Such exceptional lives may give us courage. But sometimes
they depress us also with the thought that we are all on the
ground unable to rise to such glorious heights. What is the
way out?

A comparative study — even by the foreign historians

Call of Our National Soul

29

and travellers of those days — tells us that the average
man of this country was at one time incomparably superior
to the average man of the other lands. The obvious reason
was that sustaining and strenuous efforts were kept up
by the leaders of our society to inculcate cultural samsTcars
in all strata of the society. That is why we find great
saints and heroes coming up from all sections of our
people right from those given to learning and knowledge
down to peasants, weavers, cobblers, scavengers and so on,
whose thoughts and deeds, songs and sayings have inspired
the whole of our people, crossing all superficial barriers.

Present ‘Awakening’

Today, the utter absence of this correct cultural perspective
has landed our people in an endless scourge of problems—
all stemming from the common source of the low level
of average men. We often hear that there has been a
great awakening, a growing political consciousness among
our people. Awakening is knowledge and knowledge
is the capacity to realise unity in diversity, to find harmony
in place of conflict, and to worship society in the place
of self. The tendencies of fission should therefore
disappear giving rise to urge for unity. If, on the other
hand, we do not work for the unity of our people but
exploit the various problems to create more factions, then
we are not progressing from ignorance to knowledge but
only sinking into greater depths of ignorance.

But then, what is the meaning of so much of activity,
so many movements and agitations going on all around
us? Well, living beings even though struck unconscious
still exhibit activity. For instance, we can see through a
microscope the blood flowing in the capillaries of a frog
even when deprived of external consciousness. Is it ‘ progress-
ing’? No! On the other hand it is dying. Similarly, even
at the peak of ignorance activities do take place. Even
a casual look at the motives that inspire most of our
present-day activities will convince us that they are not

30

Bunch of Thoughts

born out of real awakening i.e., knowledge, but out of
darkness and ignorance.

Purge Present Perversions

When we speak of our sublime cultural values, persons
steeped in the modern Western civilisation think that it is
something mysterious, something otherworldly. That only
shows the present depths of our mental slavery which has
deprived us of even the capacity to grasp those principles
which were once the glory of our national life. Once a friend
of mine had borrowed a book from me. On the day he was
to return it a monkey took it away. It sat on a tree-top,
held it this way and that (probably it had observed my
friend doing that!), opened and closed it several times
and finally came back and, to my friend’s amazement,
kept it back on the table and went away, probably thinking
that the doings of human beings were all mysterious and
secret ! Something similar is our condition today regarding
the teachings of our culture.

The other extreme that we witness today is to identify
singing and dancing, cinemas and dramas with culture.
We find such ‘cultural programmes’ going on everywhere
in our country. Culture has verily become another name
for cheap entertainments. This has gone to such a
ludicrous and humiliating extent, that notorious film stars
wallowing in depths of moral depravity are included in
our cultural delegations to foreign countries! Such persons
going about as the cultural representatives of a land
that has produced a Rama and a Sita, and has sent as
its cultural ambassadors the greatest seers and philosophers
in the past and a Vivekananda and a Rama Tirtha in
the modern times who commanded the spontaneous love
and adoration of the whole world, is a lurid reflection
on our present degradation.

We also see many of our leading ‘cultural men’
associating themselves as judges in the ‘Miss India’ beauty
contest. It seems in their concept of our culture, of the

Gall of Our National Soul

31

ideal of our womanhood, a Sita or a Savitri, a Padmini or
a Nivedita has no place. In that contest, indeed we miss the
real beauty of India !

Silent or Secret?

We have to rid ourselves of these present-day
perversions and assimilate the eternal and life-giving
essence of our culture. Obviously this is a work of impart-
ing cultural samskars which has to take place in an
atmosphere free from public fanfare and propaganda and
go on silently and steadily day after day and year
after year. But today, in the absence of the real perspec-
tive of our culture, silence is often mistaken for secrecy.
Our culture does not advocate exhibitionism.

For instance, the Hindu husband and wife do not
display their love openly. The Hindu wife does not
express her love through tears, embraces or screams. The
Westerners, on the other hand, show their love through
dramatic embraces and kisses. This is mostly an out-
ward show — as there is the danger of their divorce the
very next day! Our men do not indulge in exhibition
but their face will be aglow with love. And that love
continues forever without the fear of any break. Our
culture has always taught us that restraint of emotions is
more potent and charming than extravagant demonstra-
tions. If our way of expressing love is considered as
dignified, then the silent method of working is also
dignified.

Watering the Immortal Roots

The work of rejuvenating these ancient and life-
giving features of our culture has assumed a new urgency
and paramountcy not only in our present national context
but also in the international context. Our cultural vision
which alone furnishes the true basis for love and harmony
between man and man and embodies a complete philo-
sophy of life needs to be effectively presented to the

32

Bunch of Thoughts

present-day war- torn world. If we have to succeed in this
great world mission, we have to first set our own standards.
We should shake ourselves free from the mental shackles
of foreign e isms’ and foreign ways and fleeting fashions
of modern life. There can be no greater national humiliation
than to be a mere carbon copy of others. Let us remember
that blind imitation is not progress. It only leads us to
spiritual subjection.

However, we believe that the present perversions and
misconceptions are only a passing phase. Our cultural
roots are too firm and too deeply struck into the springs
of immortality to be easily dried up. They are bound to
assert their age-old vigour and vitality and throw out the
parasitic growth of the past few centuries and sprout forth
once again in all their pristine purity and grandeur.

IV For True National Glory

Our unique concept of glory— Fourfold achievement—
Dharma for individual development and social solidarity—
Materialism ends in misery— What made us world
teachers— Organised strength for attaining and maintain-
ing glory— Right men for organisation.

O UR one supreme goal is to bring to life the all-round
glory and greatness of our Hindu Rashtra. In order to
have a correct grasp of this goal, we should understand
what exactly this great glory, param vaibhavam as we
call it in our Prdrthand , is. Then we have also to understand
how to attain and maintain that glorious condition of our
nation.

Ordinarily, the glory of a nation is measured in terms of
its material affluence. There is no doubt that a nation in glory
has necessarily to be in affluence. All the necessities of life
must be fully provided to every individual in the nation.
But, is that the complete image of national glory that we
conceive of for our nation? This is an all-important question
which we have to ponder over.

Our Vision of Glory

Each nation has its own key-note in life and marches
ahead in tune with that national ethos. Our Hindu
Nation has also preserved a unique characteristic since

33

34

Bunch of Thoughts

times immemorial. To us, the aspects of material happiness
i.e., artha (the amassing of wealth) and kdma (the
satisfaction of physical desires) are only a part of man’s life.
Our great ancestors declared that there are two more
aspects of human endeavour, dharma and moksha. They
built up our society on the basis of this fourfold achieve-
ment, the chaturvidha purushdrtha of dharma , artha, kdma
and moksha. Since hoary times our society has been known
not merely for its wealth and affluence but more for the
other two aspects of life. We are therefore called a
highly moral, spiritual and philosophical people, who have
kept as their ultimate goal nothing short of direct
communion with God Himself i.e., moksha. If this final
aim of human existence is left out, then what remains
except the feeding of the brute in man? If it is a fact
that there is a difference between man and the animal,
then the concepts of prosperity and happiness for the two
also must differ. If to eat, drink and enjoy abundantly
is the only criterion for both, man will have to be equated
with a mere beast. Therefore we say that we have also
to feed the spirit of the man. It is only when we do that
that we can look upon our national existence as being really
great and glorious.

So, when we think of the greatness and glory of our
nation, we not only think of its wealth and affluence, of
all the means of satisfaction of the necessities of the
body but also of the mind of the individual which should
be made to gradually rise above all these things and place
him in a position to which he is entitled as a human being,
that is, in direct relation with divinity. It has been said,
that is, first follow dharma, and dharma will
also give artha, and kdma.

Role of Dharma

When we say that we want to protect and rejuvenate
dharma , do we mean its external form of rituals and
formalities? In our country, some people wear the sacred

For True National Glory

35

thread — yajnopavita — while some do not. Some keep a tuft
of hair, some do not. Some worship idols, some do not.
These things have meaning for those who have faith in
them. And they are just small external signs of our
all-comprehensive dharma. They must not be confused with
dharma itself.

Our definition of dharma is twofold. The first is proper
rehabilitation of man’s mind ; and the second is adjustment
of various individuals for a harmonious corporate existence,
i.e., a good social order to hold the people together.

Let us take the first aspect. What is meant by the
rehabilitation of mind? We know that the personality of
man is only a projection of his mind. But the mind is
like an animal which runs after so many things and it is
so constituted as to be one with all the desired things.
Ordinarily, man’s mind does not stop to consider what is
right and what is wrong. It stoops to any level in order
to fulfil its desires. With such a mind, man is not likely
to rise higher than the level of an ordinary animal.
Therefore the mind is to be cultivated in self-restraint and
certain other great qualities. Those attributes of good
conduct are mentioned in various contexts in Bhagavad
Gita and our other holy scriptures. They have described
five yamas for the body and five niyamas for the mind.

The other is the social aspect. Man’s life has to
be attuned to the wider interests of the people as a whole.
Both these aspects are complementary to each other. The
first aspect is defined as—

ST

which means that the arrangement which enables and
encourages man to control his desires and create within
himself the competence to realise the Divine Essence or
the Eternal Reality even while enjoying rich material life,
is dharma. The second aspect is —

WTUTRT spnucqif: W srt:

36

Bunch of Thoughts

which means that the power which brings individuals
together and sustains them as a society is called dharma .
A combination of these two definitions shows that the
establishment of dharma means the building of an organised
social life wherein each has realised his oneness with
others in society and is imbued with a spirit of sacrifice
to make others’ material life richer and happier and
develops that spiritual life which leads to the realisation
of the Ultimate Truth.

There is one more way of looking at this blending of
the development of the individual with the integrity and
welfare of the society. We have been told by our great
thought-givers to discriminate between what is permanent and
what is impermanent. Shankaracharya called it nityanityavasbu-
vivelca. Let us, for the time being, keep apart its high
philosophical interpretations and apply it to our national life.
Individuals come and go. Countless generations have come
and gone. But the nation has remained. Drops of water
come, stay for a while and evaporate. But the flow of the
Ganga goes on ceaselessly. So is the eternal flow of our
national life. We, the individuals, appear on the surface
like bubbles or drops for a moment, and disappear. The
£ permanent therefore, is the national life. The ‘ impermanent*
is the individual. The ideal arrangement would therefore
be to transform the impermanent — the individual — into
a means to attain the permanent — the social good — which
would at the same time enable the individual to enrich
and bring to blossom his latent divinity. This is dharma
in its twofold aspect, which leads mankind to its ultimate
goal of Realisation of Godhead — moksha .

The Present Warnings

Unfortunately, the persons at the helm of affairs of
our country today have lost this national vision and
become infatuated with foreign ‘isms’ wfifich have not
risen beyond the materialist view of prosperity and glory.
They have given currency to the slogan of ‘raising the

For True National Glory

37

standard of life 5 , which only means increasing man’s
desires and trying to fulfil them by increasing physical
comforts and conveniences. The luxuries of today become
the necessities of tomorrow and thus goes on the endless
struggle for more and more satiation of man’s desires of
the flesh.

It is a matter of common experience that physical
desires can never be satiated. The more one attempts to
satisfy them the more intense they grow, even as fire
blazes instead of going out when oil is poured into it.
Tolstoy has written a very instructive story under the
title 4 How much land does a man need ? \ A peasant was
promised free all the land he could run round from sunrise
till sunset. In his sheer greed to cover more and more
land he ran so far that he never got back to the starting
place before sunset, and in utter exhaustion he died- Only
a strip of land, 7 by 2\ feet, was needed to bury him !

It is also well known that a person who has a bundle
of unsatisfied desires can never be happy in spite of any
amount of multiplication of the means for their satisfac-
tion. In America, for example, in spite of its boundless
affluence and prosperity, the incidence of various sorts of
heinous crimes and mental diseases in all strata of society
is growing at an alarming rate. Millions of Americans
drug themselves every night with sleeping pills before
going to bed. This only betrays a serious lacuna in their
philosophy of life. Having kept the political and economic
factors as the sole and supreme consideration in life, they
have ignored the roots of spirituality that alone restrain
and ennoble the human mind and nurture the human soul
to grow and blossom in peace and happiness.

In Practice

Let us not, therefore, forget that it was the complete
life-concept of chaturvidha purushartha that marked out
our society and made our name shine bright on the horizon
of the world. Our national past bears ample testimony

38

Bunch of Thoughts

to the fact that this life-concept was not just a Utopia but
a living reality for thousands of years of our national life.
All the foreign travellers who visited our land have vouch-
safed for the supreme quality of man attained here in
addition to limitless wealth and affluence. The sublime
character of our people was a result of the complete life-
concept — the harmonious blending of artha and kama with
the higher values of dharma and mohsha — that we had
worked out on the individual as also on the national plane.

History records countless examples of other countries
bowing down to our nation in utmost veneration because
of the sterling character of our spiritual giants who spread
all over the world to carry the message of divinity in man.
Later on, our Buddhist monks and missionaries too who
crossed the borders and reached distant lands in the initial
stages were revered and their examples and teachings were
set up as standards in all those countries. A disciple of
Buddha had gone to Tibet, China and Japan. His idol
was actually worshipped as God in these countries. How
did this miracle happen ? It was the intense spirit of
self-sacrifice and service, the all-embracing love, and the
sheer merit of noble character of such missionaries that
made them the cultural preceptors of those people and
earned the name of Vishwa Guru — World Teacher — for our
Bharat.

The crying need for emphasising this aspect in our
national life today becomes all the more evident when we
find our people going out to other countries whether as
ambassadors or professors, as students or businessmen or
merry- go-travellers, cutting sorry figures in those countries,
wallowing in physical pleasures, behaving no better and
many times even worse than those people.

Our real national regeneration should therefore start
with the moulding of ‘man’ instilling in him the strength
to overcome human frailties and stand up as a shining
symbol of Hindu manhood embodying within himself all
our traditional virtues of love, self-restraint, sacrifice.

For True National Glory

39

service and character. We should unfailingly keep this
vision, this real essence of our glorious nationhood, before
our eyes so that we can again rise to our original pedestal
of world preceptor.

The Sanction

Now, we come to the second aspect of the question.
In the present-day world, what should we do to attain
and maintain that highest pinnacle of national glory, in all
its fourfold achievement of life? We know that such a
glorious condition stands in danger of destruction either
by internal disorders or external aggressions. Our own
history tells us that both these have been responsible for
bringing us down from a state of glory that was once the
envy of the world to the present despicable condition.
Today therefore we have to rebuild our national life so
that we will be able to ward off both these dangers.

It is well known that in this age, especially, the
strength to protect ourselves from external aggression and
internal chaos lies in the organised life of the people—
sfrsft zpt. Therefore, when we say that our nation
should be taken to the pinnacle of glory, it also means
that the people should be made alert, organised and
powerful. After all, nations can stand only upon the
solid foundation of their organised strength. Other aspects
of life such as food, clothing, shelter, medicine and
other physical requirements, however necessary, are
only secondary. The first and foremost prerequisite is the
invincible organised life of the people without which even
the highest national prosperity will crumble to dust in no
time.

Weak Links Do Not Make a Strong Chain

Let us now look for the source of such a strength. Where
does it reside? We say, it lies in the organised life of the
people. But, what type of people? They should be such
as are imbued with unity of mind and thought, with a

40

Bunch of Thoughts

common code of morality, faithful to each other, and
absolutely loyal to the nation. Unless they are such,
their organised strength is not likley to protect the nation.
On the other hand, it may prove a source of menace to
the national life. For example, selfish and antisocial
elements and even thieves and dacoits get themselves
organised.

We also find that it is easier to gather together
selfish people without character for purposes which are
detrimental to social welfare. Today, *such groups who
have got their own sectarian or some such narrow interests
are coming up throughout the country. In order to
satisfy their selfish interests they are even prepared to
destroy the sanctity and unity of our national life. Such
persons come together very easily. That is the lowest
stratum of organised life. In the lower strata of life,
organisation is very simple, very easy. A whole flock of crows
assembles if we just throw a piece of flesh. It is the herd-
instinct. This instinct comes into play when the wider grasp
of the national life is lost sight of and ^narrow concepts of sect,
creed, caste or some such things reign supreme in the mind.
But we should not take to this line simply because it is
easy.

Therefore, we conclude that organised strength has to
be built up by the bringing together of proper persons.
Then, what are the qualities required of individuals
who will form the living limbs of such an organised
strength ?

Strength is Life, Weakness is Death

The first thing is invincible physical strength. We
have to be so strong that none in the whole world will be
able to overawe and subdue us. For that, we require
strong and healthy bodies. All our Incarnations who
came in the human form have been such. The essence of
all our scriptures has been ‘strength is life, weakness is
death’. Swami Vivekananda used to say, “I want men

For True National Glory

41

with muscles of iron and nerves of steel.” He himself
was like that. Finding that some co-disciples were always-
sitting down and shedding tears, he would thunder, “That
is not bhakti. That is nervous weakness. Don’t sit down
and weep like little girls.”

What do we see today when we look at ourselves in
a mirror? Do we find any sign of manliness and strength?*
Don’t say, “What is there after all in a body?” Our
skastras, say:

( Body is the primary instrument for fulfilling our duties in life
Without an able body, we cannot achieve anything. Even
to see God, a healthy and strong body is required. God
is not for the weak:

TTWIc^TT 3*6^1 nh v5Tq: I

When we sit to meditate upon God, if our head begins to*
reel, our back begins to ache, and we begin to quail and
shiver in our own seat, then the result is no God, but only
fever! The present-day fashion of our young men of
decorating the skin and discarding the sinews must be given
up and they should, with proper exercises and healthy
habits, develop strong bodies capable of resisting heat
and cold, hunger and exertion and undergoing all the hard-
ships of life with good cheer.

Character is Ail

Physical strength is necessary, but character is more
important. Strength without character will only make a
brute of man. Purity of character from the individual as*
well as the national standpoint, is the real life-breath of
national glory and greatness.

There is the story of Prahlad which depicts the-
importance of character. As a result of his meritorious-
deeds, he drove away Indra and became the king of gods.
Indra approached Brihaspati — the guru of gods— and said,.
“Sir, you know my pitiable plight. What shall I do to*

42

Bunch of Thoughts

regain my throne? Brihaspati said, “Dress yourself as
an ordinary mendicant, go to the durbar of Prahlad at the
hour of Ichhdddn i.e., when he gives away whatever the
beggars ask, and ask for his sheela (character).” Indra
•obeyed. He went to Prahlad as a beggar and asked him
his sheela.

Prahlad said, “ Why are you satisfied with only my
sheela?” “That is sufficient for me” replied the mendicant.
“You can have it” said Prahlad. Immediately after he
said this, an effulgent being came out of his body and
entered the body of the mendicant. “Who are you?
Why are you entering the body of the mendicant leaving
my body?” asked Prahlad. “I am your sheela. As you
have given me away to him, I have to enter his body now ”
the effulgent spirit replied. In a fraction of a second
another brilliant form came out. Once again Prahlad asked,
“Who are you, why are you leaving my body?” “lam
your shaurya (prowess). I am only a servant of sheela .
So long as you had sheela [ served you. Now that sheela
has gone away, I am also following sheela . ” So saying, it
also entered the body of the mendicant. Like this a few
more effulgent forms left Prahlad’s body. Lastly, a brilliant
shining form of woman came out of him. She said, “Well,
I am your Rajyashree (Goddess of Royal Glory). I too
am a servant of sheela. As you have given up your sheela ,
I am going.” As a result, Prahlad lost all his power and
pelf and Indra regained his throne.

The moral of the story, in a nutshell, is that if
•endowed with character we can achieve anything and
without character we stand to lose everything. This is
as much true of individuals as of nations. Therefore, the
two aspects of character, individual and national, are like
the twin lungs of national glory.

Robust Common Sense for Success

Now, suppose we have a strong body and a pure and
devoted heart. But, how to use the body and the mind?

For True National Glory

43

For that, we require intellectual acumen capable of grasping;
the realities and intricacies of the situation and deciding
one’s right conduct. We should therefore develop power
of concentration, sharpen our intellect and acquire the
power to pitch upon the right action at the right moment-
And we should also be prompt and dynamic in acting
up to decisions.

Without such practical wisdom, all our goodness and
strength will be of no avail. Many a page of disaster in
our past history was a result of the want of robust common
sense. Let us not forget that the path of national reorga-
nisation is not a bed of roses. And without sagacity,,
mere sincerity will not avail us when faced with knaves
and crooks. One need not be an ‘intellectual’ to achieve
skill and wisdom in the practical world. Even persons in
the common strata of society can cultivate such wisdom-
There is the example of one of our workers, an ordinary
unlettered farmer in a village, who could guide and
control ten to fifteen surrounding villages even during
critical situations. He could also give proper guidance
to the village elders in all walks of life. Each one oF
us should rouse within ourselves the conviction that C I
am born with living seeds of wisdom which, if properly-
nurtured, shall surely take me to success’ and strive to
live accordingly.

Fearlessness and Devotion

Suppose we have a strong body, purity of character,,
a keen intellect, but no fortitude, what is the use? All
the time, circumstances are not going to favour us. We-
shall have to face obstacles and adversities. Fearlessness
is the first virtue of a hero, the starting point of all other-
noble virtues. Even in the Gita , the enumeration of the-
various godly qualities starts with abhayam (fearlessness)-
Our founder, Dr. Hedgewar, used to say that the work
of national consolidation should proceed in such a way that

44

Bunch of Thoughts

neither do we frighten anybody nor be afraid of anybody:

*TT 'TT WX '4'Md 3TTT |

All our ideal heroes have been the embodiment of fear-
lessness and fortitude. A large army headed by Khara and
Dushan came to attack Rama. Dust was seen clouding
the sky. Seeing the enemy approaching, Rama said to
Lakshmana, “Sita is not accustomed to all these things.
You stay here protecting her. I will finish these fellows
and come back.” So saying, he went alone with the bow
in his hand. Sita trembled to see him going alone. Then
Lakshmana said, “What of this fourteen thousand, he is
capable of destroying the entire army of Ravana single-
handed. Be at ease.” After annihilating the rdJcshasas ,
Rama came back as though nothing had happened — cool,
-quiet and unruffled as ever.

The spirit of heroism is necessary even to worship God.
.A coward cannot do it. In Gnyaneswari , it is said that
when a person sits to meditate upon God he will see terrible
forms, and if he is a chicken-hearted fellow, he will be
simply undone. Nothing can be achieved by cowards, either
in this world or the other. If we are on the right path,
there is no reason to be afraid of anything.

One of our workers died some years back. I met him
a week before he died. He told me, “No treatment seems
to have any effect upon me. I have no hopes of recovery.
I feel I am dying soon.” I said to him, “You have served
:a great ideal selflessly and untiringly. You have done no
harm to anyone and have always been doing good to all.
Why then should you be afraid of death? Rejoice and
meet death peacefully ! ” And he faced death with peace
.and tranquillity. Such a spirit of fearlessness born out of
the conviction that we are doing good, that we are on
the right path, will take us a long way in achieving our
ideal.

That is not all. We need an urge to develop in our-
selves all these qualities. Intense devotion to the ideal

For True National Glory

4£

that we have placed before us, will give us the necessary
urge to equip ourselves with all the great qualities required
for achieving the glory of our nation.

It is when we bend all our energies towards this-
fundamental process — the great process of man-making —
that our ancient and sacred nation can regain its original
position of greatness and glory, shedding peace and plenty*,
culture and character all-round.

V Live Positive Dynamic Hinduism

The indefinable * Hindu * — Aim: God Realisation —
Special features — Our unique standard-bearers — Need
to manifest ideals in daily life — Effects of f reactionary
Hinduism’— Role of daily samskars — Fad of c modern-
ism ’ — Hindu ideals in all spheres — Live National
swadharma.

W HEN we say that the Sangh is dedicated to the reju-
venation of the great and unique Hindu way of life,
there are many who confront us with the question, “First
of all, how do you define a ‘Hindu’?” Well, it is really a
tough job. Once a gentleman remarked, “I can define a
£ Mussalman or a e Christian ’, but I cannot define a ‘ Hindu V*
He was right when he said so. We can define the Sun
and the Moon, but the Ultimate Reality from which all
these things have emerged cannot be defined. But does
it mean that It does not exist? Merely because It refuses
to be clothed in symbols and defies definition, does it
prove its non-existence? Sri Ramakrishna has said that
God alone is c anuchhishthaf pure and undefiled, because He
alone has never been described, never been defiled by any
tongue. Everything else we can define, but not that all-
comprehensive something called Reality.

46

Live Positive Dynamic Hinduism

47

The Indefinable Hindu

We, the Hindus, have based our whole existence on:
God and therefore, it is probable that the Hindu Society
developed in an all-comprehensive manner, with a bewilder-
ing variety of phases and forms, but with one thread of
unification running inherently through the multitude of
expressions and manifestations. All the sects, the various
castes in the Hindu fold, can be defined, but the term
‘Hindu’ cannot be defined because it comprises all. Of
course, many attempts at definition have been made from time
to time, but all such definitions have proved to be incomplete.
They do not express the whole truth and it is but natural in the-
case of a people who have been growing and evolving for
the last so many centuries.

The origin of our people, the date since when we are
living here a civilised life, is unknown to the scholars of
history. In a way, v/e are £ anddi ’, without a beginning.
To define such a people is impossible, just as we cannot
express or define Reality because words came into exis-
tence after the Reality. Similar is the case with the
Hindu People. We existed when there was no necessity
for any name. We were the good, the enlightened people.
We were the people who knew about the laws of
nature and the laws of the Spirit. We built a great

civilisation, a great culture and an unique social
order. We had brought into actual life almost every

thing that was beneficial to mankind. Then the-
rest of humanity were just bipeds and so no distinctive-
name was given to us. Sometimes in trying to distinguish
our people from others, we were called ‘ the enlightened ’ —
the Aryas — and the rest, the MlechTias. When different
faiths arose in foreign lands in course of time and those

alien faiths came in contact with us, then the necessity

for naming was felt. Various names were given at different,
times, just as the Ganga is called Gangotri, Bhagirathi,
Jahnavi and Hooghly at different stages. And the name.
‘Hindu’, derived from the river Sindhu, has been associated

48

Bunch of Thoughts

■with us in our history and tradition for so long that it has
now become our universally accepted and adored name.

life with Aim

So, here we are, Hindus, though defying all defini-
tions, all the same a reality. The Hindu Society is a
living reality which all of us feel and experience in every
drop of our blood. But though we cannot define it, we
■can and must be able to appreciate the special features
which mark out the Hindus as a distinct people. We cannot
say that merely because a particular individual is not a
Muslim or a Christian, he is a Hindu by the process of
■elimination. In our country, the Hindu is often referred
to by political leaders as non-Muslim. That is not a
healthy, positive way of understanding our real nature.
Hindu is not a negative being. What, then, is the positive
■content of that word ?

To a Hindu, life is not aimless. That aim is not one
of greatness, measured in terms of power, position, name
or fame. The realisation of his true nature — the innate
Spark of Divinity, the Reality in him — which alone takes
man to the state of everlasting supreme bliss, is the one
aim before him. But man has only a short span of life.
How can he reach that supreme stage within such a small
period ? He does not even fully know about his own body
though he uses it throughout his bodily existence. Then,
how can he know That which is immanent in the body?
The law of cause and effect says that each action of ours —
the cause — has its effect. The circle of cause and effect
has to grow, develop and culminate. As such, the present
■existence of man cannot comprise the whole story of his
real being. Since the distinctive natural urge in man is to
■expand and express his divine nature, he will be born
.again and again so long as the least trace of ignorance of
his true Divine Self remains and in every birth he will be
able to make further progress if he makes honest efforts.

This theory of rebirth for the realisation of our

Live Positive Dynamic Hinduism

49

oneness with that Ultimate Reality is the one great hope
for the human soul. It is the lighthouse of Hinduism alone
which sheds this light of immortal hope that all is not over
with this present life but there is eternal time before us to
put our shoulders to the wheel, life after life, and reach
the destination. It is the Hindu alone, in the vast mass of
humanity, who holds aloft this torch of hope and confidence.
All our holy scriptures, all our sects, old or recent, have these
fundamentals ingrained in them.

Serve 6 Man’

With this we go forward. We are living in this world.
We are surrounded by innumerable worldly charms and
distractions. Probably we may not, even for once, think
over the real aim of life. Then, how are we to conduct
ourselves so that we may be able to progressively realise
during the course of our life, our real nature and not
degenerate into further and further ignorance thus dragging
ourselves down in the scale of evolution ? The law recognises
that if a man commits a harmful act, without however any
evil motive, his fault is less. Sometimes he is even supposed
to be absolved of all his sin. If we, therefore, act without
any selfish motive, do things out 'of a sense of duty i.e.,
if we take out the personal attachment from our action,
the motive of personal enjoyment therein, then the
various actions and their fruits do not affect us. Then
we are completely absolved from the effects and shocks
of the external world and we will be able to concentrate
on our True Self. So, our philosophy says, do your work,
do your duty in a selfless spirit.

Now, what is the nature of the work we have to do ?
What is the nature of our duty? From where are we to
begin and how are we to lead our life so that we may
reach that Ultimate Reality? Is it possible by merely
proclaiming that there is something which is called Reality,
which will in course o time automatically manifest Itself?
No! We must be able to see Its objective manifestation

50

‘Bunch of Thoughts

in this objective world, something concrete, something
living which we can feel and experience and through which
we will be able to complete the process of realisation. Our
philosophers have placed 6 man ’ as that objective manifestation
of Reality, as the object of worship and service. They
declared, “Like ourselves, every man is a spark of the
same Reality. Let us try to identify our joys and sorrows
with an ever-increasing circle of men, expand thus our
being and ultimately realise the Great Reality pervading
the entire universe.”

What, then, is the arrangement that makes it possible
for everyone of us to serve 6 man each according to his
stage of evolution?

Man does not live alone; he shuns solitude. He is
gregarious by nature. So, human beings come together
and live as social beings in the form of society. Thus he
can live well, develop, and manifest the best in him. He
can thus rise in the social rung and progress towards the
fulfilment of the aim of life. It means that the building
up and maintenance of a social order capable of affording
each individual full opportunities to identify himself with
wider and wider social groups and serve society wdth all
that he possesses, is the way for lighting up the path of
every individual towards the realisation of the Ultimate
Truth. Therefore we have said, “Let us serve society without
any selfish ambition or selfish attachment.” Service to
humanity is verily service to God. This has been a special
feature of our philosophy of life.

Our Models

With this ultimate aim always before our eyes, it was
natural that throughout our history we have laid great
store by the qualities of head and heart conducive to the
welfare of humanity rather than the amount of earthly
riches that one possesses. The richness of heart, the purity
of mind, the nobility of character have always been the
touchstone of our values of life. The standard of greatness

Live Positive Dynamic Hinduism

51

-with us has always been one’s inner possession and not
one’s outside possessions. All outer things come and go.
Why should we run after those fleeting objects? We opted
for a wealth which is the unique treasure of human life,
which we can develop within ourselves — the wealth of
sound virtues, of perfect knowledge and of sublimity of
the soul. That alone is real, that alone is abiding. There-
fore, whereas the general mass of people in other countries
have worshipped a great military hero or a mighty chief-
tain, we find in our land that even the great heroes and
monarchs have worshipped the dust of the feet of half-
naked sanyasins living in forests without a piece of cloth
to call their own. Why? Because of our way of looking
at life, because of our realisation that the quality of the
inner being alone is abiding and that it goes from life to life
till it reaches the culmination of perfection.

Be Living, Moving Emblems

These are just a few basic features which go to make
us real, positive Hindus. It is only when we pay special
attention to them, imbibe them, manifest them in our life,
and stand up as real, living and moving emblems of those
glorious concepts that our taking birth in the divine Hindu
heritage will not be in vain.

Can we, then, say confidently that we are such real,
positive Hindus? Let us ask ourselves. How do we live?
What are the ideals before us? What are our feelings? Is
it that we are Hindus only by the force of circumstances
or by * accident of birth ’ ? Are we Hindus because we have
remained untouched by conversion to Islam or Christianity,
as the proselytisers were very few and we were very large
in numbers? Is that the only meaning of our being
Hindus? There is no use merely saying, “Oh! We have
a great culture.” What do we know of it? How do we
practise it? Do we look at our individual life as an offering
to society? Do we feel that we should not merely run
after pelf and power but should hold aloft virtues in life?

52

Bunch of Thoughts

Do we feel that we should really be such men that as soon
as anyone looks at us, he must be able to say, “Here is a
man, who is seeking perfection in all that go to make a
real human being”? Let us introspect on these lines and
gradually assimilate all those distinctive Hindu traits so
that we can stand before the world as positive dynamic
Hindus. Let us live up to our philosophy, our dharma ,
and all those great qualities which have moulded our lives
for countless generations.

Therefore, though the idea of organising the Hindu
Society may appear to be very simple, it really means that
first of all we should realise in our day-to-day life that we
are Hindus and mould every little aspect of our life in
keeping with those great traditional values. In all that
we do, in our dress, in our behaviour and in all walks
of our life, that stamp of positive conviction should be
vividly manifest. This is the prime responsibility that rests
upon us.

Reactionary Hinduism

But, unfortunately, what do we see all around us
today? Some are Hindus, not out of conviction, but out
of reaction. To give an example, our workers once ap-
proached a prominent Hindu leader during the signature
collection campaign demanding ban on the slaughter of
cows. But they were greatly shocked to hear him saying,
“What is the use of preventing the slaughter of useless
cattle? Let them die. What does it matter? After all,
one animal is as good as the other. But, since the Muslims
are bent upon cow-slaughter, we should make this an issue.
And so, I give you my signature.” What does this show?
We are to protect the cow not because the cow has been
for ages an emblem of Hindu devotion but because the
Muslims kill it! This is Hinduism born out of reaction,
a 4 negative Hinduism \

There are some for whom the term ‘Hindu’ is of use
only to serve political objectives. Because a Congressman

Live Positive Dynamic Hinduism

53

or a Socialist or some 4 X ’ thinks in terms of 4 composite
culture’, they stand up and say that they want a e pure*
Hindu culture. Stranger than this is the cry of ‘ Hindu
Communism’ ! A person can either be a Hindu or a
Communist. He cannot be both. It only means that those
who shout about 4 Hindu Communism ’ know neither Com-
munism nor Hinduism. This is all out of reaction. Once
a gentleman asked me whether we are organising Hindus
in order to counteract the various activities of the
Muslims. I simply told him that even if Prophet
Mohammed had not been born and Islam had not come
into existence, we would have taken up this work just as
we are doing it today, if we had found Hindus in the same
disorganised, self-forgetful condition as at present. The
positive conviction that this is my Hindu Rashtra, this
is my dharma, this is my philosophy which I have to live
and which I have to set up as a standard for all other
nations to follow-— well, this should be the solid basis for
Hindu reorganisation.

If, then, we are not to be mere ‘political Hindu
animals * or Hindus out of reaction, we must live as Hindus
by conviction, capable of expressing that conviction in all
aspects of our day-to-day life. The mere propagation of
Hindu thought in literature and newspapers takes us
nowhere. For instance, Veer Savarkarji wrote a beautiful
book 4 Hindutva ’ and Hindu Mahasabha based itself on that
pure philosophy of Hindu Nationalism. But in its Nasik
session, Hindu Mahasabha passed a resolution that
Congress should not give up its ‘nationalist’ stand by
holding talks with Muslim League but that it should ask
Hindu Mahasabha to do that job! What does it mean?
It only means that the hybrid nationalism of Congress was
of the pure variety, whereas Hindu Mahasabha represented
the Hindu counterpart of the rabidly communal, anti-
national Muslim League ! How did this strange perver-
sion set in? Because, the deep-rooted conviction which
would spontaneously evoke a ready answer “yes, this is

54

Bunch of Thoughts

Hindu Nation ” under all conditions, even in dreams, was
not there.

Things that Count

So, we say that we have to imbibe deep and positive
samskars of our nationhood which shall not allow us to be
swept off our feet by political or other considerations.
It is of no use to speak of Hindu Nationhood and the
eminence of Hindu way of life without a corresponding
life-pattern in our practical day-to-day behaviour.

One of our ancient customs is to get up early in the
morning before sunrise. Once a sadhu described to me
his early childhood, how his mother used to get up early
in the morning and, while doing the normal household
duties, would be reciting in her melodious voice various
hymns describing the glory of the Divine Mother of the
Universe, and how she would 'awaken him with words
invoking Her holy blessings. The sadhu said, “ Those
holy words which I used to hear immediately after I woke
up from my sleep went deep into my being, purified me, gave
me faith and strength to resist all worldly temptations and
devote myself to the service of the Mother .” This is Hindu
samskdr. Let us thus mould our life with an attitude of
discipline throughout the day, from morning till night. A
Hindu is born to be trained in a life-long course of discipline
and self-restraint, which purify and strengthen him to reach
the Supreme Goal in life.

Let us not say that these are small things about which
we need not worry. It is only such little things that go to
discipline our life and give shape and strength to our
character.

But, unfortunately, what do we see at present? All
such benevolent customs and codes of conduct are ridiculed
as superstition. A revealing incident took place recently.
A student had gone to America from our country. He
stayed as a paying guest in one of the ordinary families
there. On the first day, when he sat for meals at the

Live Positive Dynamic Hinduism

55

table along with the members of the family, he immediately
started serving himself. Then the lady of the house gently
requested him to wait for a minute and explained that it
was their custom to pray to God before taking food.
Remember, that young man had gone from a land which
is considered to be a land of spirituality, a land of God, to
a land which is supposed to be a land of Mammon worship,
a land of gross materialism! There is no doubt that it is
this faith in God, this faith in religion that has given to the
West, to a large extent, the strength to succeed in this world.

“ Modernism”!

We pride ourselves upon our spiritual tradition. But
how are we actually living? What are our daily samskars?
Is there any place for God in all our daily routine? Is
there at least a place in our homes where we can contemplate
upon Him? Once an acquaintance of mine invited me
to visit his newly built house. It was a well-furnished and
in every sense a "modern’ house. When he had finished
showing me its special features, I just asked him, “Well,

where is the devagriha ? Have you no family deity, which

your forefathers had worshipped and handed down to
you?” My question came as a surprise to him. He

replied apologetically, “Yes, yes, but I had forgotten all
about it. ” After a few months when I had gone to that
place again, he specially invited me to his house saying
that he had carried out my suggestion. I went there to

see. He showed me a small almirah constructed in the
triangular space under the staircase and all the cnappals
and shoes — quite a number of them because their ‘ standard
of life’ w j as quite high! — of the family members neatly
arranged over that almirah ! He said with a sense of
gratification, “ I have just constructed this and kept our
family god here.” I was horrified to see that. I only
remarked, “ Why not keep these chappals inside and
worship them instead of defiling the deity?” Such is our
4 modern progressive ’ Hindu life !

56

Bunch of Thoughts

Let us not forget that a Sri Rama, a Shivaji or a
Vivekananda was not a product of this type of
‘modernism’. Shivaji was inspired by the ideals enshrined
in a Rdmdyana and a Mahdbkdrata . It was his supreme
devotion to our Hindu way of life coupled with his
unparalleled organisational acumen which gave it a
practical dynamic form, that made him a force which
changed the entire course of our history. Right from the
Vedic seers down to Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Rama
Tirtha and such other stalwarts of the modern age, all

have left the impress of their inspiring personality

on our people by their ife of positive love and
realisation of our age-old ideals. They could stand erect
in spite of all adverse forces, and speak to the world
in challenging tones. To what a pitiable condition we,
their children, have descended ! We do not know even
the a, b, c of the ideals which moved and moulded
those heroic souls.

I know a young man who had gone to a foreign land
on Government scholarship. There he was confronted
with a number of queries by his friends and strangers,

about dtmd, prdnaydma, Gita and so many other Hindu
ideas and ways of life. This young man was blissfully

ignorant of all those things. He wrote to me about his
difficulty. But what could I do? Could I give him postal
training in yogdbhydsa , in aamddhi , in prdndydma and
in all such things? How humiliating it is, that our so-
called educated young men of this land do not have the
least scent of the fundamentals of our own philosophy —
let alone their realising them in full !

Ideals in All Aspects

Then, let us look into the other aspects — the aspect
of our relation with the various spheres of contact with
society, as for example, our family, our neighbourhood,
our centres of education, our field of profession and so on-
Has there been no distinctive contribution of the Hindu

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57

in all these spheres of life? On the contrary, it is the
Hindu alone whose philosophy embraces the smallest as
well as the widest spheres of human activity- To us, the
family is the first stage of our self-expansion. Then, all
the various duties that devolve upon us as family members,
have to be gone through so as to keep the delicate ties of
sweet affection and identity among the members of the
family always intact. As a son, as a brother, as a husband
or in whatever relationship, let us uphold the noble Hindu
ideal of a familyman. It brings no credit to us if we say,
ee Oh, I am working for society, why should I bother
about the family bonds?” Again, look at the great ideal
characters of our land. Sri Rama, though in his teens,
accompanied Vishwamitra to the forest to destroy the
rakshasas according to the bidding of his father. Later,
he gladly started for his fourteen years of forest sojourn
only to preserve the sanctity of his father’s pledge. As a
brother, what an intense affection he bore towards
Lakshmana and others! He was an ideal son, an ideal
brother, an ideal husband, an ideal friend, an ideal disciple
and to his foes an ideal enemy too — all blended in one
ideal Hindu manhood. So was Sri Krishna. What a
source of joy and solace he was to Yashoda and Nanda!
How he charmed the whole neighbourhood with his sweet
behaviour !

Then, during our student life, acquiring knowledge
and character, and not merely stuffing our brains with
information, has been the constant urge with us. We are
not to become mere bookworms. The one key to all
learning is concentration of mind. With regular healthy
habits for the body and for the mind, it should not be
difficult for us to develop concentration. And then, in
various educational institutions in which we study, we
come in contact with our teachers and co-students. In
the Hindu tradition the relationship between the teacher
and the taught is not one of contract. It is something
sublime — the shishya looks up to the guru as the very

58

Bunch of Thoughts

embodiment of knowledge and divinity and behaves
towards him in a spirit of humility and devotion.

Immediately this is said, there are today some who
ask whether the present-day teachers are worthy of such
devotion. But the students should not fall a prey to
such a perverted outlook. Let us behave as we ought to;
it is for our own good, for our own refinement. We
worship the idol of Hanuman in the temple. After a time,
by constant application the idol is thickly covered with
sindhur and its shape is changed beyond all recognition. But
still it is worshipped as Hanuman with the same devotion.
The Deity of Learning is Vinayaka— the Deity with a pot
belly and an elephant head ! But that does not affect one’s
devotion to Him. See the born Jagadguru Sri Krishna
behaving like any ordinary pupil in the hermitage of
Sandipini, and you get the true picture of an ideal Hindu
student. He served his teacher with utmost love and

devotion just like any other pupil. He went to forests
in rain and storm to bring dry faggots for yagna. What
was there for him, who was himself the very embodiment
of knowledge, to learn ?

And again, see him moving among his comrades and
co-students. What a deep and pure love he had for all !
Sudama, a poor Brahmin boy, was his classmate in
Sandipini’s ashrama. Later in life, when Sri Krishna’s fame
spread far and wide, Sudama once set out with torn clothes
and a handful of beaten rice to see his old classmate. As
soon as Krishna sighted his old friend he dashed forth and
warmly embraced him to his bosom. He snatched the
precious present that his friend had brought and ate
it with great relish. He conferred upon Sudama immense
riches also.

Even if, by chance, there is a conflict with our elders
on points of ideology, our respectful behaviour towards
them need not change. In the Mahdbharata War, when
Bhishma and Arjuna faced each other, Arjuna directed his
first five arrows to the feet of Bhishma. The charioteer

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59

of Bhishma was amazed to see Arjuna’s unfailing arrows
falling at Bhishma’s feet instead of striking his chest.
Bhishma said, “My beloved Arjuna is prostrating before
me with all his five pranas seeking my blessings. ”

“Swadharme Nidhanam Shreyah”

Let us not brush aside these examples as old purdnic
stories. In them are embedded the priceless gems of our
culture which once made the Hindu life the envy of the
whole world. Nor are they to be discarded as having
become impractical in these days. Even in this twentieth
century, we do see such inspiring examples. There is the
example of our own founder, Dr. Hedgewar. When he
had once gone to Poona in connection with the organisa-
tional work, one of his old teachers at Poona was also
invited to the elders’ meeting to be addressed by him.
Many a leading light of the city had assembled for the
meeting. The old teacher came a bit late. But as soon as
Doctorji saw him, he got up and touched the old teacher’s
feet and offered him his own seat.

These are only a few features of our present-day living
on the background of our permanent values of life. It is
only when a nation, just as an individual, sticks to its
roots of swadharma that it grows and blossoms forth in
all-round glory and achievement. Pulling out one’s roots
of swadharma and transplanting something else in its place
will only result in utter chaos and degeneration. The
Bhagavad- Gita says:

to qrspfr

(Even death while performing one's own dharma brings
blessedness; taking to another's dharma is fraught with fearful
consequences.)

The task of rekindling the Hindu way of life brushing
off the ashes of self-forgetfulness and imitation covering
the immortal embers of the age-old samskdrs in the Hindu
heart so that the pure flame of the National Self of this

60

Bunch of Thoughts

sacred land will once again blaze forth in all its effulgence,
therefore, comes up before us as the call of National
Swadharma.

VI

Vision of Our Work

Short-cut mania —Lure of politics— Warning of history
— Secret of our undying potency — Inspiration for
national rejuvenation— Power corrupts— Restraints on
power— Effects of combination of political and economic
powers— Lesson of Europe— Sangh building people’s
power— Upholding national genius .

T HE ultimate vision of our work, which has been the
living inspiration for all our organisational efforts, is
a perfectly organised state of our society wherein each
individual has been moulded into a model of ideal Hindu
manhood and made into a living limb of the corporate
personality of society.

Obviously, this is not a vision which can be realised
within a few days or even a few years. It requires the
untiring, silent endeavour of hundreds and thousands of
dedicated missionaries. It requires stout and steady hearts
which shall remain unshaken amidst adversities and temp-
tations. It is to mould such inspired lives that the Sangh lays
utmost stress on day-to-day samslcars , day-to-day inculcation of
all those qualities of head and heart which go to foster strength
and competence in the individual to march on the path of
lifelong dedication.

61

62

Bunch of Thoughts

The Short-cut Mania

This type of steady, silent and lifelong devotion to
work may appear very strange and unusual in the present-
day world. It has an originality and a freshness all its
own. As such, people will naturally take some time to
appreciate and assimilate this approach of ours. For
instance, there are many who feel aghast at the idea that
our method of work demands daily attendance at a parti-
cular hour, at a specified place, year after year, all through
their lifetime. Once a young man requested me to guide
him how he could develop his powers of concentration. In
order to test his tenacity, I asked him to observe a parti-
cular practice regularly. Immediately he asked, “For how
long am I to do this?” I said, “Well, continue it for all
life.” He exclaimed, “For all life! How is it possible?”
I told him, “Is it possible for you at least to live for all
life?”

That is the mentality of the day. People want quick
results and short-cuts- to success. This human frailty of
‘minimum effort and maximum result’ has encompassed
all fields of our national life. The path of honesty which
implies sincere, hard labour has yielded to means, foul or
fair, which give quick results. The earning man thinks in
terms of such short-cuts to become rich; and if he can
become so overnight, he is prepared to descend to any
level for that sake. He takes to black-marketing, specu-
lation and gambling. He eagerly catches hold of an
astrologer to see if any planet can do something for him!
Stealing and robbing are, of course, there— as the right
royal short-cuts !

People have also begun to look out for short-cuts
in realising God! Who will take all the trouble of under-
going lifelong penance and single-minded pursuit of
God? They try to get hold of some saint or sanyasi as
an intermediary agent who, they believe, will take over
all their sins, give them his merit and leave them clean
and pure to face God! No aspect of our social life is

Vision of Our Work

63

free from corrosion by this mean and ignoble attitude*
The Suicidal Lure

Because of such an atmosphere all-round, people begin
to think whether there are such short-cuts in the Sangh
work also. They ask, “How long do you carry on like
this? When will you be able to bring about the total
transformation of society that you visualise? For how
many years more will you go on plodding the same path?”
Then, they look around and see the mighty Government
wielding such vast powers as to encompass the whole
expanse of national life. They begin to imagine that
invested with such resources in administrative personnel,
finance and authority, they can, within a short time,
change the entire face of the country, and mould the
coming generation on the pattern they desire through
education and so on. They become enamoured of that
short-cut involving less sacrifice and quick result. To a
superficial view, this argument, no doubt, appears very
attractive. The all-out stress that is being laid on the
political and economic aspect of our life by the present
Government, the incessant propaganda carried on for their
Five Year Plans, and the opening up of ever new fields
of government control to suck up the young men of the
country, have also added their share to the present-day
attitude of our people to look up to political power as
the panacea for all our ills.

But let us not be carried away by such a superficial
view. Let us educate the people to acquire a deeper
understanding of things, though unfortunately shallow
thinking has become the order of the day. Once in
Nagpur, there was an All India Education Conference.
Some of the leading luminaries who had come there were
known to me. They told me about the details of their
proceedings and the rules, curriculum etc., they had
decided upon. At last I asked them a simple question,
“ Can you tell me the real nature and real needs of the

64

Bunch of Thoughts

‘individual’ whom you are planning to educate?” One of
them confessed straightaway that this question was never
posed before them. That is how things go on in our
country, as in the story of the blind leading the blind, no
one desiring or striving to get at the root of the problem.

Let us open the pages of world history and see if such
a superficial view, such a short-cut means of state power
will really help to build an immortal national life of a
country. There were in the past so many empires pivoted
wholly on political power. Persia, for example, entirely
depended upon its emperor for all its security and pros-
perity. The emperor was the supreme head and controlled
all aspects of people’s life including their religion. The
people were for a time carefree and happy. But their
entire national edifice crumbled at the very first shock of
the Arab invasion. The same fate overtook the empires of
Rome and Greece. It was not as if these empires had no
wealth or good administration or armies. But all those
things rested on the sandy foundation of the political authority
of the king and as soon as that political power was
shattered even for a while, all their civilisation, their
religion and their nationalism came down along with it
in a crash, never to appear on the world stage again.
Countries after countries lost their soul to Islam and
became Muslim countries for ever in this fashion.

Secret of Our Immortality

But the story of our nation presents an entirely diffe-
rent picture. Our society also had to face innumerable
such invasions from the most barbaric races. Even political
domination by these hostile forces continued for a time,
sometimes even for several centuries, on our people. Off
and on, forces of adhmrma reigned unleashing all their
powers of destruction right from the days of Ravana. In
that dark hour when Aurangazeb ruled, even a great
martial saint like Samartha Ramadas was constrained to
lament that an Incarnation of the Almighty alone could

Vision of Our Work

65

save Hindu Society from total annihilation. Later on, the
wily Britisher also tried his hand at subverting our
national life. Even today adharmic elements are having
their heyday. But our society has survived all these
grave crises. Again and again it has risen from the ashes,
smashed the stranglehold of the evil forces and (established
the reign of righteousness. That glorious tradition con-
tinues unbroken to this day, charged as ever with the idealism
and energy of resurgent nationalism. How did this miracle
happen ? What is the secret of the immortality, this deathless
potency of our society, even after it was scourged with the
deadliest of poisons?

It is at once clear that the basis of our national
existence was not political power. Otherwise, our fate
would have been no better than that of those nations which
remain today as only museum exhibits. The political
rulers were never the standard-bearers of our society.
They were never taken as the props 'of .our national life.
Saints and sages, who had risen above the mundane
temptations of pelf and power and had dedicated them-
selves wholly for establishing a happy, virtuous and
integrated state of society, were its constant torch -bearers.
They represented the dharmasatta. . The king was only
an ardent follower of that higher moral authority. Many
a kingship licked the dust owing to various adverse and
aggressive forces. But the dharmasatta continued to hold
the people together.

Ravana was a shrewd aggressor. He knew this secret
of our social coherence. He was aware that the life-
centre of our society throbbed in the forest hermitages
of sages and seers. Therefore, he concentrated his attacks
on those jungle huts, on the sacrificial rites that were
carried on there. But those spiritual heroes braved those
onslaughts and stuck to their mission of rousing and inte-
grating the people. The whole of society and, it is said,
even gods were groaning under the heels of Ravana. Then
the nation roused itself in the personality of Sri Rama.

66

Bunch of Thoughts

That great saviour was moulded and guided by a Vishwa-
mitra, a Vasishtha and an Agastya. Not only was Sri Rama
set up, but intense national consciousness of the whole of
society was kept ablaze by these sages through regular
discourses, discussions and various dharmic rites. How
alert, how diligent were these ‘half-naked faqirs’ in
their devotion to the welfare of society ! Finally, even the
deadly missile with which Sri Rama slew Ravana was
given to him by the sage Agastya. It was because of their
inspiration and untiring efforts that those lashing tides
of adharma which had engulfed the ‘three worlds 1 were
ultimately laid low. Once again society rose evermore
effulgent from the ashes of Lanka, the citadel of those
adhdrmic forces.

The Tradition Continues

The Budhist Age too has the same message for us.
After Buddha, his followers here degenerated. They began
to uproot the age-old national traditions of this land.
The great cultural virtues fostered in our society were
sought to be demolished. The links with the past were
hammered away. Dharma was at a sad discount. The
whole social fabric was being rent to shreds. Devotion
to the nation and its heritage had reached such a low
pitch that the Buddhist fanatics invited and helped the
foreign aggressors who wore the mask of Buddhism. The
Buddhist sect had turned a traitor to the mother society
and the mother religion. In such a critical moment, who
was it that came up as the redeemer of our dharma and
our society?

It was the same tradition of sages and seers that pro-
jected its power and vitality in the form of Sri Shankara-
charya. He was a sanydsin , an incomparable philosopher
and an unique organiser. His eminence was not in any
earthly wealth or power. Half-naked, he roamed on foot
from one end of the country to the other. Countless were
the dangers he had to encounter including attempts at

Vision of Our Work

67

poisoning him. But he moved from place to place, fearless
•and conquering, knowing no rest or comfort and once
again rekindled the ebbing flame of our ancient culture.
The band of his devoted sanyasin followers cemented
with their blood and sweat the past with the present for
a glorious future. The true national consciousness and
•spirit of selfless service that they roused, helped society
to find its feet once again and throw out the treacherous
elements. Buddhism, as a distinct sect, was erased from
the mother soil, though, of course, Buddha remained as
an Incarnation. We worship Lord Shiva, no doubt, but
■on that account we do not welcome the flock of demons
surrounding him!

Even during the days of Muslim domination great saints
and sanyasins rose to continue that tradition. All
those stalwarts— Chaitanya, Tulsidas, Surdas, Jnaneshwar,
Ramananda, Tukaram, Ramanuja, Madhwa, Nanak and a
host of such others— flooded the land from one end to the
other with religious devotion. Samartha Ramadas converted
that religious fervour into a dynamo of national power.
They recited stories of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna, sang
the divine ballads of their heroism, roused the people’s faith
in their gods and goddesses and kept up their moral calibre
unimpaired amidst all the political oppression. The great
national renaissance under Chhatrapati Shivaji was the
direct outcome of those years of intense spiritual and
■cultural awakening. Prior to that also, the glorious Hindu
power of Vijayanagar rose on the spiritual-cum-national
awakening set in by Swami Vidyaranya. The great
religious teacher Guru Nanak and his successors laid the
foundation of the Hindu upheaval exhibiting itself in the
warlike Sikhs under Guru Govind Singh and Banda Bairagi.
Thus, once again, the great national consolidation centred
round dharma and the vicious, antinational forces were
put to rout and the flag of national victory flown trium-
phantly from Attok to Cuttack and from Kashmir to
Kanyakumari.

68

Bunch of Thoughts

We see the same spiritual content of national resurgence
against the foreign yoke of the British also. The spiritual
sun broke forth in all its glory in Bengal as the Sri
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda order, in the Punjab in the
form of Swami Dayananda and Rama Tirtha, in the South
as Maharshi Ramana and Yogi Aurobindo— all of whom
infused the spiritual content of nationalism into the people’s
mind.

This is the unmistakable evidence of history before
us. We have to take a lesson from that and decide to
build the organised life of our people imbued with pure
character and unflinching devotion to cultural and spiritual
values which shall stand unshaken for thousands of years
to come. The power of the organised life of the people
imbued with the spiritual urge of our ancient heritage—
well, that has been the secret of our immortality all down
these ages. That is verily our Raslitra-dharma and we
stand committed to rejuvenate it in its full potency.

Here it is necessary to clear a misconception that
has clouded our thinking these days. When words like
dkarma and spirituality are uttered, pat comes the remark :
“Why do you bring religion into politics?” This question
stems from a misunderstanding of our concept of dharma
and confusing it with the Western concept of religion. The
Western countries suffered for centuries because of their
dogmatic concept of religion and the control of state by the
church. Our concept of dharma is as different from that as.
light is from darkness. Dharma or spirituality is not a dogma
but a view of life in its totality. It is not a separate sphere
of national life just as political or economic spheres*
Spirituality is, in our view, a comprehensive vision of life
that should inform and elevate and correlate all fields of
society for the fulfilment of human life in all its facets.
It is the sap of our national tree, the life-breath of our
national entity.

Vision of Our Work

69

Power Corrupts

Even after understanding all this, there are some
who feel that political power is essential even to spread
our dharmic ideology. In the past, Christianity and
Islam, they say, spread because of the political power
they wielded. But on a closer study, we will find that
ultimately political power will never solve the problem.
For instance, the Government and most of the people
were ranged against that single individual, Jesus Christ.
After he was crucified on the cross, his disciples had no
one to guide them. But their hearts were charged with
idealism. Fired with the spirit of Christ, with the faith
and zeal of their new realisation, they spread far and wide
in the world. And the world bowed at their feet. Then
they had no political power. But when, in course of time,
their successors fell a prey to the lure of political power,
corruption and degradation entered their ranks. The
present plight of Christianity, rendered powerless to mould
the life of its own Christian countries and even made a
tool in the hands of imperialistic political powers, is the
direct outcome of the pollution of their ranks with political
ambition. The perversion of Islam at the hands of its power-
drunk followers— miscalled the spread of Islam— is too well
known. It had nothing to do with the awakening of the
spiritual values of life.

Why go so far? The present leaders of Congress were
at one time men of great sacrifice and patriotism. The
people also were inspired to follow the path of virtue
because of their glowing examples. But what is their
fate today? Corruption, nepotism and lust for power have
become rampant in their ranks. That is why Gandhiji
had advised Congress on the advent of s'uoaraj either to
disband itself or to strictly keep itself aloof from power.
But his wholesome advice was too bitter a pill to swallow
for his followers who had tasted the spoils of power. And
today we see its dire result, not only for Congress but for
the whole country as well.

70

Bunch of Thoughts*

The latest experiment in Russia to achieve social
good through the sole agency of state power has also given
the same verdict. The statement “power corrupts and
absolute power corrupts absolutely” has become true to a.
letter there. Once power is got, the desire to retain it at
all costs takes hold of the persons who wield that power.
The attitude towards the people will then become one of
“ I am the master, and you are my slaves. ” There is a Sanskrit
saying :

tfNpf ^OTrffT: l

fiprr 1 1

(Youth, wealth , power and indiscretion — each one of
these is enough to bring disaster; then , what to say when
all the four combine ? ) That is what has happened in
Russia with its revolutionary zeal, wealth and power and
its resultant intoxication, all combined to make a ruthless-
dictatorship, which has enslaved and dehumanised a whole
nation.

Considered from this other aspect also, we come to*
the same conclusion that the type of organisation that we
are building— keeping ourselves aloof from the lures,
and tentacles of political power, but at the same time
alert and powerful enough to check the erring powers,
that be— can alone give a healthy permanent order in which
our society can live and prosper. After all, political
power is an external appliance which cannot by itself
mould the ‘inner man’ after an ideal. Mere governmental
legislation cannot mould the minds of men on the lines of
virtue. If a person in authority legislates, say, against
drinking and if he himself is given to drinking, he will
only show greater cleverness in circumventing that very
law.

Thus it is very clear that political authority, by itself*
becomes powerless when it has to play the role of
rejuvenating the cultural values and social solidarity; and
much worse, if left to itself, it corrupts those high

Vision of Our Work

71

standards. The secret of immortality of a nation con-
serving all the noblest of its traditional qualities has to be
sought elsewhere.

Restraints on Power

It is with such a deep understanding of the various
factors of social life that our ancient law-givers confined
the function of the state to the protection of the people
against foreign invasions and internal strifes caused by
jealousy, hatred, aggrandisement etc. A state which
transgresses these limits, they said, cannot be the friend
of the people. In fact, it becomes their enemy. For, it
will not allow the free growth of the eternal potentialities
of the people. That would also degrade them by making
them relegate to the background the higher values of life,
in a bid to please the powers that be.

Today our Government, calling itself a ‘Welfare State’
is trying to centralise all power and authority and secure
undivided control of education, medical aid, social reforms,
production, distribution and many other spheres of life.
If the state were thus to dominate the whole range of
human activity, the individual will exist only as a slave
bereft of all initiative. It is well known that power tends
to make its wielder oppressive and tyrannical. Men in
authority, therefore, strive to suppress their potential
opponents through violence, thereby rendering themselves
incapable of securing the peaceful progress and welfare of
the people. Our law-givers, therefore, thought it necessary
to impose strong checks on the men in power. They ord-
ained that governmental power which is only a means
should not become the end. The state could do good to
society only so long as it remained as the upholder of
dharma — the higher law of the good life— and not as an end
in itself. They, therefore, placed our rulers under the gui-
dance and control of the dhdrmic authority in the form of
selfless and disinterested persons— the sages and seers living
in hermitages.

72

Bunch of Thoughts

One more unique feature incorporated in our ancient
national set-up was the precaution taken to keep political
power aloof from the production of wealth. Money is a
form of power. It does not need much intelligence to
imagine the havoc the state can create once it becomes
inflated by a combination of political and economic powers.
Concentration of these powers in the hands of the same
individual or group must either degrade and enslave society
or provoke the people to revolt when their suffering becomes
unbearable. Whatever the outcome, the loss of social
stability, progress and prosperity becomes inevitable.

The Lesson of Europe

The example of European countries is highly revealing.
Prior to the French Revolution, the king was the repository
of all political and economic powers in those countries.
The people were groaning under the despotic kingship,
squeezed out of all liberty, initiative and happiness. The
French Revolution erupted with the trumpet cry of
‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ as a violent revolt against
that tyranny. By about the same time, the Industrial
Revolution had also set in. Under the slogan ‘equality
of opportunity % persons with greater intelligence, capacity
and money monopolised the industries, amassed enormous
wealth, and on that strength controlled political power
also. They became the new tyrants in place of the old.
The combination of political and economic powers once
again bred despotism and the common man was reduced
to conditions of indescribable misery and slavery, though
under the new and enchanting garb of democracy. As
Bernard Shaw observed, democracy was born as a result
of the absence of a benevolent despot.

This imbalance in social set-up and the consequent
popular unrest caused another outburst in the form of
Communist revolution. The bloody revolutions that took
place in Russia and China have probably no parallel in
the history of the world for sheer magnitude of massacres, purges.

Vision of Our Work

73

transportations, slave camps and such other inhuman
measures. Again, the same tragedy of the combination of
political and economic powers has overtaken the Com-
munist countries landing the general mass of people in
inhuman slavery. Even countries which have forestalled
the Communist revolution and remained democratic could
do so by weaning away to some extent at least the politi-
cal power from the clutches of economic power. However,,
even in these democratic countries, a beneficial balance
between the two has not been achieved so far.

Therefore in order to avoid slavery or bloody revo-
lution and provide enduring peace and freedom to society,
our ancient Hindu thought and practice had kept econo-
mic power away from the hands of the state. It deprived
the people producing wealth of all political power. The
two powers were thus kept interdependent and mutually
corrective. And above all, these two powers were subjected
to the supervision of such selfless men as had no axe to
grind. It was the continuous tradition of such persons-
holding the sceptre of spiritual authority who were ever
on the alert to undo any injustice perpetrated by any of
these two powers, while they themselves remained above
all temptations of power or riches, that formed the real
breath of the glory and immortality of our ancient nation.

Building Social Omnipotence

It is after realising this key-note of our national tradi-
tion that we have taken upon ourselves the none-too-
easy path of moulding such men imbued with an uncompro-
mising spirit of dedication to the nation and its spiritual
values, who, on the strength of their all-embracing love
and spotless character, will be able to wield the integrated
strength of the society to such an intense degree that the
political powers that be shall not dare to transgress their
limits and use power for ends other than social welfare. An
organisation of such men alone can form the true basis of
eternal social power— an organisation which can rise above

74

Bunch of Thoughts

the flux of circumstances, which is not inspired by the aim
of serving petty interests or capturing political power, an
organisation which is identified with the whole of society,
sustaining by its very existence the entire social edifice and
providing a spontaneous impulse and energy for its full
• self-devel o pmen t .

Having, as we do, this sublime vision engraved in our
hearts, why should we run after the mirage of political
power? Once in the Dakshineshwar Temple there was a
theft. Some of the ornaments of the idol of Radhakanta
were stolen. When some one made the remark “what is this
God who cannot protect His own ornaments”, Sri Rama-
krishna rebuked him saying that it was shameful to entertain
:such absurd views for, what value can He attach to such
worthless pieces of stone and metal Who has Lakshmi, the
Goddess of Wealth, for his handmaid? Similarly, why
should we, who have the integrated vision of the entire
national life, run after a fleeting thing like political power?

Political power shall only reflect the radiance of culture,
integrity and power of the organised society that we want
to build up— just as the moon reflects the radiance of the sun.
We aspire to become the radiating centre of all the age-old
cherished ideals of our society— just as the indescribable
power which radiates through the sun. Then, the political
power which draws its life from that source of society, will
have no other go but to reflect the same radiance.

There is a story in the Upanishads which beautifully
■expresses this idea. Once it appears, the gods became
swollen-headed due to their victory over the demons.
The Almighty thought it time to subdue their inflated ego.
He assumed a colossal body and suddenly appeared before
them. The gods were taken aback to see that strange
apparition. The god of wind, Vayu, was sent to find out
who that figure was. That figure calling himself Yaksha,
placed a blade of grass in front of Yayu and challenged
him to move it. Vayu with all his world- shaking powers
Tailed to move it even by a hair-breadth. He returned

Vision of Our Work

75

exasperated. Then the god of fire, Agni, went. He also
returned humiliated having failed to burn that little blade
of grass. Finally, the king of gods, Tndra, himself went to
see him, but that strange figure disappeared all of a sudden.
Indra also returned feeling ashamed at his inability to
unravel that mystery. Then it was brought home to his
mind that the Yaksha was the Almighty Himself through
Whose grace each of them received a spark of His power.

Stick to National Genius

That is the grand ideal we have envisaged— the-
building up of the omnipotent power of the people which
shall eternally sustain the society amidst all the vicissitudes
of external factors and vivify and irradiate all fields of our
national life.

Remember that the ancient spirit is not dead. That
race spirit which has survived all the shocks of centuries-
of aggression and has time and again thrown up great
spiritual and national heroes is bound to reassert itself. Let
us fashion our life on the pattern of those ancient torch-
bearers, those cultural luminaries of our land. Let us~
revive that glorious tradition which produced a Vasishtha,
a Vishwamitra, a Chanakya, a Vidyaranya and a Samartha,
that blossomed forth in a Sri Rama, a Chandragupta, a.
Krishnadevaraya and a Shivaji.

Let us stand like a rock on this conviction amidst all
the tempo of outside propaganda for short-cuts and distrac-
tions of political lures. Let us remain true to our dream
of reinstating our Bharat Mata as the Cultural Guide of'
the world, by making our people once again take to the
path of our national genius. It is only when we stand up
to this conviction unshaken like the great Himalayas that,
holy streams like Ganga and Yamuna of true national
resurgence and cultural values flow from us. Let that
sublime vision continue to stir our hearts forever and let
us prepare ourselves for that historic mission, regardless of'
the time and energy that we may be required to dedicate..

Part Two

The Nation and
Its Problems

VII

Our Motherland

/. tLc <yca,H.<L viiL&n,

Our glorious motherland— An ancient concept — Briti-
shers’ hand in subverting it— Hoary descriptions of
Bharat, Himalayas— The complete picture— Chosen
land of God Realisation— Patriotism spiritualised— Its
living tradition.

T HIS is our sacred land, Bharat, a land whose glories’,
are sung by the gods—

TTRTfcr cHf: Vji FT 1

w swr: n

(The men born in the land of Bharat , the gateway lo heavens'
and salvation , are more blessed than the gods themselves — so
sing the gods),

—a land visualised by Mahayogi Aurobindo as the
living manifestation of the Divine Mother of the universe,
the Jaganmatd , the Adishakti , the Mahdmdya and the
Mahadurga , Who has assumed concrete form to enable us
to see Her and worship Her,

—a land eulogised by our philosopher-poet Ravindra-
nath Tagore as

79

SO Bunch of Thoughts

(The enchanting Goddess of the world Her feet washed by the

blue waters of the oceans ),

—a land saluted by the inspired poet of freedom,
Bankim Chandra, in his immortal song Vande Mataram
which spurred thousands of young hearts to cheerfully
ascend the gallows in the cause of her liberty, as

(Thou art the Great Destroyer armed with ten weapons ),

— a land worshipped by all our seers and sages as
Mdtrubhoomi , Dharmabhoomi Karmabhoomi and Punyabhoomi,
a veritable Devabhoomi and Mokshmhhoomi,

—a land which has been to us since hoary times the
beloved and sacred Bharat Mata whose very name floods
our hearts with waves of pure and sublime devotion to
her,

—well, this is the mother of us all, our glorious
motherland.

Motherland — Ancient C on ce pt

In fact, the very name ‘Bharat’ denotes that this is
our mother. In our cultural tradition, the respectful way
of calling a woman is by her child’s name. To call a lady
as the wife of Mr. so-and-so or as Mrs. so-and-so is the
Western way. We say, “She is Ramu’s mother.” So also
is the case with the name ‘ Bharat ’ for our motherland.
Bharata is an elder brother of ours, born long long
before us. He was a noble, virtuous and victorious king
and a shining model of Hindu manhood. When a woman
has more than one child, we call her by the name of her
eldest or the most well known among her children. Bharata
was well known and this land was called as his mother,
Bharat, the mother of all Hindus.

But there are persons who say that Hindus did not
know what motherland was, that they were all divided into
various warring clans, that patriotism, i.e., devotion to one
.single motherland, was unknown to them and if at all they

Our Motherland— I

81

were to a certain extent devoted, it was only to certain
fragments of the land and not to the country as a whole
from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari, as we obtain it at
present. Even leading persons of the day often declare
that ours is a ‘continent’ or a ‘sub-continent’ having
various climates and various kinds of soil with a conglo-
meration of nations and therefore unfit to be called a
single country. How did these queer notions creep into
our national mind?

It was the wily foreigner, the Britisher, who, to achieve
his ulterior imperialistic motives, set afloat all such
mischievous notions among our people so that the sense
of patriotism and duty towards the integrated personality
of our motherland was corroded. He carried on an
insidious propaganda that we were never one nation,
that we were never the children of the soil, but mere
upstarts having no better claims than the foreign hordes
of the Muslims or the British over this country. The
misfortune is that the so-called educated of this land were
taken in by this ruse.

But the fact is, long before the West had learnt to
eat roast meat instead of raw, we were one nation, with
one motherland.

(Over all the land up to the oceans , one nation ) is the trumpet
cry of the Vedas. Asetu-Himachal— from the Setu to the
Himalayas— has been our clear concept all down these ages.
Long ago our forefathers sang :

SPT T? mTct TPR; II

(The land to the north of the oceans and south of the Hima-
layas is called Bharatavarsha, and Bharatis are her children.)

The Great Himalayas

The entire Himalayas with all their branches and
sub-branches extending to the North, South, East and

82

Bunch of Thoughts

West, with the territories included in these great branches,
have been ours — not merely the Southern lap of the
mountains. It is sheer practical common sense— apart
from religious or other sentiments— that no powerful and
wise nation would make the top of the mountains its
boundary. That would be suicidal. Our ancestors had
instituted some of our places of pilgrimage on the Northern
side of the Himalayas making those regions our live
boundary. Tibet, ie., Trivishtap— now called £ a Chinese
province’ by our leaders! — was the land of gods and
Kailas, the abode of Parameshwara , the Supreme Lord.
Manasarovar was another holy centre of pilgrimage looked
upon as the source of our sacred rivers like Ganga, Sindhu
and Brahmaputra.

Kalidasa, our great national poet, has described the
Himalayas as

ftnr^T ^Frrf^TM: i
ftq rcr: <rfq^T ^ 11

(At the top is the divine Himalayas , the King of mountains ,
stretching its arms to the ocean on the east and west and standing
as the measuring rod of the earth.)

Chanakya, who has been held an authority on our
political science, has stated :

(To the north of the oceans up to the Himalayas , the country
is 1000 yojanas in length.)

That only means, the poet Kalidasa’s description
tallies with the statesman Chanakya’s statement in giving us
a fairly correct picture of the vastness of our motherland.

The Grand Picture

Our epics and our purdnas also present us with the
same expansive image of our motherland. Afghanistan was
our ancient Upaganasthan. Shalya of the Mahabhdrata
came from there. The modern Kabul and Kandahar were

Our Motherland — 1

83

■Gandhar from where Kauravas’ mother Gandhari came.
Even Iran was originally Aryan. Its previous king Reza Shah
Pehlavi was guided more by Aryanism than by Islam-
Zend A vesta, the holy scripture of Parsis, is mostly Rig Veda.
Goming to the East, Burma is our ancient Brahmadesha.
The Mahabharata refers to Iraavat, the modern Irrawady
valley, as being involved in that great war. It also
refers to Assam as Pragjyotish since the sun first rises
there. In the South, Lanka has had the closest links
and was never considered as anything different from the
mainland.

It was this picture of our motherland with the Himalayas
dipping its arms in the two seas, at Aryan (Iran) in the
West and at Sringapur (Singapore) in the East, with Lanka
(Ceylon) as a lotus petal offered at her sacred feet by the
Southern Ocean, that was constantly kept radiant in
people’s mind for so many thousands of years. Even

to this day a Hindu while taking his daily bath invokes the
sacred rivers right from Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati,
Narmada and Sindhu to Cauvery.

Tff =ST ^ % TfteTTfk I

TRT Msf ffS li

This is also a lesson in devotion, because we are made
to feel that even a drop of water from these holy rivers
has the potency of wiping out all our sins.

One of the greatest personalities who has left an

indelible stamp upon the character and culture of our
people is Sri Ramachandra. His great qualities like
tranquillity, catholicity, depth of knowledge and feelings

are held comparable to the immeasurable depth and
serenity of the ocean, and his indomitable valour and
fortitude are compared to the great and invincible
Himalayas —

Do we not know that our motherland is bounded
on one side by the Himalayas and the rest of the

84

Bunch of Thoughts

three sides by the ocean? The entire motherland has been
thus visualised in its fullness in the ideal personality of
Sri Rama. Various are the ways in which this motherland
of ours has been set forth as an object of worship*
whole and integrated. Any idea of fragmentation has been
intolerable to us.

The Chosen Land

The entire land to us is tapobhoomi. There is an
illuminating incident in our ancient literature. A question
was once put which land was pure and holy for practising
tapas and performing sacrifices so as to bear proper fruit*
and which was the ideal place for the realisation of the
Ultimate Reality. The answer given there is, the land
where Krishna-sdra-mriga is found is the only suitable
land for that purpose. Any student of zoology can tell
you that this particular type of deer is to be found only
in our country and nowhere else in the world. What does
it show? Our forefathers were of the conviction that
throughout the world this is the holiest of the lands where
the least merit will bear fruit a hundred or thousandfold.
Swami Vivekananda has said, “ If there is any land on
this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Puny a-
bhoomi , to be the land to which every soul that is wending
its way Godward must come to attain its last home, it is
Bharat. ”

This is verily the chosen land of God Realisation.
This is not mere sentimental effusion, but our deep-rooted
conviction. Some years back our newspapers had flashed
the story of a German who came to our land as a spiritual
aspirant. He embraced sanyas and underwent the stern
austerities of an all-renouncing ascetic. But even after
prolonged penance he could not realise God. On a search-
ing self-enquiry he was convinced that his body, born
and bred in the passionate climate of the West, was unfit
for God Realisation. He therefore went to Haridwar and
gave up his body in the holy Ganga. He left a note

Our Motherland— I

85

stating, “lam giving up the body of my own accord. May
the offering of my body in the sacred waters of Ganga
merit me with a rebirth in Bharat and with that new chaste
body I will be able to realise God.”

We come to the same conclusion regarding this special
feature of our motherland if we study the lives of the
founders of the various other faiths and sects in the world.
Even in the case of the great saint, Jesus Christ, nowhere is
there any reference that he had actually seen God. He had
only come across angels and once Satan. When put on the
Cross, he was even tormented for a moment by a doubt
regarding the mercy of God and he exclaimed, “ My God, why
hast thou forsaken me?”

The founder of Islam, too, was a great and powerful
man. He could inspire those uncivilised people, torn
asunder by feuds and factions, with a sense of human
values and roused in them the urge and organised power
to build empires. But even he met only Gabriel and heard
some divine voices, that is all. He did not see God face
to face.

It was given to the great sons of this soil alone to
see and realise God in His full effulgence. At a time when
other races had not yet emerged from their caves and
forests, the Yedic Rishis addressed mankind as the children
of Immortal Bliss —

jprn 3TT=r feqj STTnffr I
and declared in thundering tones:

lofi rfpq: II

(I have seen that Great One , lustrous and beyond all darkness .
Having known Him , man is emancipated from the cycle of birth
and death; there is no other way to final salvation.)

There is no parallel in the rest of the world literature to
these expressions for their supreme self-confidence and
self-realisation. Again nowhere else can you find the parallel
of a Sri Krishna who speaks in the first person ‘I* as God

86

Bunch of Thoughts

Himself in His immortal soul-stirring call to mankind — the
Bhagavad-Gita .

Tradition Continues

Nor is this unique feature of our land confined to
ancient tradition only. Even in modern times there is the
historic instance of Narendra’s (later, Swami Vivekananda)
meeting with Sri Ramakrishna. As a young and brilliant
college student, he had already dived deep into the philo-
sophies of the East and the West. But his searching soul
was not satisfied. He met various learned and pious men
of his time. Even they could not quench his spiritual
thirst. He came to know that there was a paramahamsa
(realised soul) in the temple of Dakshineshwar. He went
to him and bluntly posed him the question that had
haunted him for years : “ Sir, have you seen God ? ”

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa replied without a moment’s
hesitation: “Yes, I see Him just as I see you here, only
to a much intenser degree. And I can show Him to you
also. ” And Sri Ramakrishna fulfilled his promise to
Narendra.

As we know, Narendra was a modern young man with
a towering intellect and tremendous will power. He was
not the type to be mesmerised or hypnotised into blindly
believing things. But he could not help being convinced
about the reality of God when brought face to face with
God Himself. Such is the living tradition of men of God,
who have continuously held aloft the name of our land as
the land of God Realisation, as Dharmabhoomi , as Moksha -
bhoomi.

No wonder that such a land with divinity ingrained in
every speck of its dust, has been to us the holiest of the
holy, the centre of our utmost devotion. And this devo-
tion is felt for the whole of the land and not for any frac-
tion of it. The worshipper of Shiva goes from Kashi to
Rameshwaram, and the devotee of Vishnu in His various
forms and Incarnations travels the whole length and

Our Motherland— 1

87

breadth of this country. If he is an Advaiti , the four ashrams
of Shankaracharya standing as sentinels take him to the four
corners of the country. If he is a Skakta, the worshipper
of Shakti — the Divine Mother of the Universe — fifty-two
are the places of his pilgrimage spreading from Hingulat
in Baluchistan to Kamakshi in Assam and Jwalamukhi in
Himachal Pradesh to Kanyakumari in the South. It only
means that this land is the divine manifestation of the
Mother of the Universe.

The Divine Mother

Nothing can be holier to us than this land. Every
particle of dust, every thing living or non-living, every
stock and stone, tree and rivulet of this land is holy to us.
To keep this intense devotion ever alive in the heart of
every child of this soil, so many procedures and conventions
were established here in the past. The various religious
rites invariably included a description of the spot in rela-
tion to the entire expanse of Bharatavarsha—

....

All our important religious ceremonies start with bhoomi-
poojan- worship of earth. There is the custom that as
soon as a Hindu wakes up in the morning, he begs forgive-
ness of the Mother Earth because he cannot help touching
Her with his feet throughout the day.

I

(O Mother , the Divine Consort of Almighty , with ocean as
Thy embroidery and mountains as Thy breasts , forgive me for
touching Thee with my feet.)

A simple act indeed, but it brings home to our minds
every morning the idea of devotion for this motherland
as the sublimated devotion to the Divine Mother. This
training has gone so deep that even in ordinary day-to-
day affairs we often come across a flash of that reali-
sation. When a child at play tramples on the ground.

88

Bunch of Thoughts

the mother says, “Do not kick the Mother Earth, dear-
child.” Or if a nail is driven into the earth wantonly,
she says, “Oh, no! Dear child, Mother will be pained.”'
An ordinary farmer, too, before applying the plough to
the soil, prays for her pardon. Such is our living tradition.

Never, never has our land been dead inanimate matter,
but always the living divine mother to all her children—
the lowliest and the greatest.

Swami Vivekananda, when about to leave England for
Bharat, was asked what he thought of his motherland

after having visited the luxuriant countries of the West
like America and England. He said, “Bharat, I loved
before. But now every particle of dust in Bharat is

extremely holy. It has become a place of pilgrimage
for me. ”

And his guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once
severely admonished a person who was going to Ganga to
wash himself after answering nature’s call. He said, “How
unbecoming of you to pollute the divine waters of Ganga —
Gangavari brahmavdri— with your dirt!”

Such has been the living realisation of the glorious
motherhood of our land inculcated by her great sons which
has permeated into all strata of our people.

She has been, in fact, the central theme of our
national life all through. She has nourished us as the

mother with her soil, air and water and all the various

objects for our sustenance and happiness. Like a father
she has arranged protection to us through the impregnable
Himalayas in the north, and various mountain ranges like
Aravali, Vindhya and Sahyadri interspersed all over the
country that afforded our freedom fighters protection and
shelter in the past. And she has acted as our spiritual
preceptor too in her capacity as Dharmabhoomi and
Mokshabhoomi.

Our motherland has been a mother, a father and sl
teacher— mdtd, pita and guru— all rolled into one.

VII

Our Motherland

2 .

warn

ted It etoLC devotion

Limits of inte lie dualism— Mother concept; sign of evo-
lution— Two aspects of devotion— Heroic devotion alone
counts— Fruits of ‘ not a blade of grass grows ’ menta-
lity— Political boundaries decided by nation’s will-
power.

T HERE are some very eminent luminaries in our country,
who declare with an air of omniscience, “ What is
this so-called motherland, except stones and clay!” Such
persons feel that the intellect is everything. According
to their intellectual reasoning, a country is after all a
stretch of inanimate, inert territory. But even intellectual
reasoning has its own limits. For instance, the human body
is after all material. The body of one’s mother also is as
much material as any other woman’s body. Then, why
should any one consider his mother as different from other
women? Why have devotion for her? An intellectual has
no answer for this.

Take another instance. The human body requires
for its nourishment starch, protein, fat, salt and water.
And these food-contents are readily available in human
flesh in the requisite proportion. After all, biologically,
5 89

90

Bunch of Thoughts

man is nothing but flesh, blood and bones. So, why not
eat up our neighbour? But if a person says this, he may
be called a scholarly logician, but certainly not a civilised
human being. Such intellectualism leads only to canni-
balism. Ravana was a scholar, but a barbarian all the
same. Therefore, mere intellect is not enough. Man
must be capable of experiencing the nobler sentiments of
the heart.

Blossoming of Mother Concept

Now, how did this concept of 4 mother ’ blossom in
this 4 stones and clay ’ ? We know that as living species
evolve and progress, they begin to invoke the sentiments
of mother in those things, animate or inanimate, which
feed and nourish them. Take a frog or a snake for
example. They have no idea of mother at all. They are
also not aware as to what happens to their offspring.
Neither the offspring nor the mother look upon each other
in that relationship. Gradually, as life evolves, we come
to mammals where the mother feeds her young ones in
their childhood. Birds take care of their eggs and the
small ones until they become strong enough to fly about.
When the usefulness of the mother is no more felt, the
offspring forget their mother and thereafter they are
entire strangers to one another. Man is supposed to be at
the top in the scale of evolution. If he is cultured, his
love and adoration for his mother continues even after she
ceases to be physically useful to him. In fact, he will serve
and revere her all the more, if she becomes very old,
blind and bodily out of use.

As human life evolves, the concept of mother also
takes a wider and more sublime form. When man looks
around with his discerning intellect, he sees so many other
things to which he owes a debt of gratitude. He begins
to look upon them also as mother. He sees the rivers
which give him food and water. He calls them mother.
Once he outgrows the use of his mother’s milk, he sees

Our Motherland — II

91

the cow which feeds him with her milk throughout his life.
He calls her mother-cow. And then he reaches the state
of understanding that it is the mother soil which nourishes
him, protects him and takes him in her bosom even after
he breathes his last. He becomes conscious that she is
his great mother. Thus to look upon one’s land of birth
as mother is a sign of a high state of human evolution.
The Vedas declare:

smrr ?rfh: <rferr: i

(The Earth is my mother, I am her child.)

Make Devotion Dynamic

Therefore it is up to us to keep aglow that highly
evolved, divine sentiment of mother towards our land.
Now, how are we to express our devotion to her? There
are two ways. The one is the formal type of worshipping
with flowers, lights, chanting of hymns etc. Our people
have been doing this even today in a spirit of religious
devotion. They go round the country on pilgrimage,
follow the religious injunctions, recite hymns, worship and
offer flowers and take bath in the various holy rivers.
They do all this with the sole purpose of acquiring
personal religious merit. This is in a way the passive
aspect of devotion.

The dynamic aspect of devotion is to manifest in
practical national life a spirit of readiness to sacrifice our
all for the protection of the freedom and honour of every
speck of this motherland. It is this active manifestation
that counts in this hard matter-of-fact world. A heart
fired with such devotion can never tolerate the slightest
affront to the object of its devotion, i.e., the motherland.
It takes on a terrible form and rests not till the aggressive
elements responsible for the insult no more remain in a
position to commit the sacrilege a second time. A divine
discontent to undo all the past insults and humiliations
bums in such a heart.

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Bunch of Thoughts

Without this dynamic, conquering spirit, even devo-
tion to a divine cause will be of little avail. In this hard
world which is an arena for a trial of strength with brute
forces, mere goodness or noble virtues, i.e., the passive
aspect of sattva, will not hold the field even for a single moment.
That is why we find that in spite of all the piety, goodness
and devotion to God all down the past thousand years, we were
trampled under the feet by foreign aggressors who, though
totally strangers to goodness and virtue, had a passion for
heroic action and organised effort, i.e., full of rajas. Our
history also bears witness to the fact that whenever our
people became charged with the conquering spirit — charged
with the dynamic aspect of sattva— then all those demonic
empires of the enemy were reduced to shambles.

That is also the lesson of our puranas which depict the
stories of the struggle between devas (gods) and rakshasas
(demons). We often see devas, in spite of their divinity,
being beaten down by the organised and aggressive rakshasas.
And it was only when the devas roused themselves to
heroic action that they could triumph over the rakshasas.
It is activity, dynamism and heroism that rule the world-
Indeed, “ veerabhogya vasundhara” (This Earth is for the
valiant) sums up the philosophy of a successful life in this
world.

Are We Alive?

Is this fiery and heroic aspect of devotion to our
motherland alive in our hearts today? If that spirit had
been there in our leaders and in our common folk, could
Partition have taken place? Would they not have risen
uncompromisingly, heroically as one man against all such
machinations of the British and the Muslim, prepared to
shed their last drop of blood for maintaining the sacred
integrity of the motherland? Alas, that did not happen.
On the contrary, people, led by the leaders, were busy in
celebrations on the advent of so-called independence !

There are some who tell us, “Bygones are bygones.

Our Motherland — II

93

What is the use of raking up old dead issues? After all.
Partition is now a settled fact.” How is this ever possible?
How can a son forget and sit idle when the sight of his
mutilated mother stares him in the face every day? Forget?
No true son can ever forget or rest till she becomes once
again her complete whole. If Partition is a settled fact,
we are here to unsettle it. There is, in fact, no such thing
as a 4 settled fact’ in this world. Things get settled or
unsettled solely by the will of man. And man’s will is steeled
by a spirit of dedication to a cause which he knows to be
righteous and glorious.

There are some others who justify Partition saying,
“ After all, Hindus and Muslims are brothers. Partition
is just a brotherly division of their property.” But have
we ever heard of children cutting up their mother saying
that she is their common property? What depths of
depravity ! Motherland has verily become an object of
bargaining, only a land for enjoyment, Bhogdbhoomi , just
like a hotel, and not a Dharmabhoomi , Karmabhoomi and
Punyabhoomi. The tearing away of the limbs of our mother
and the gory blood-bath of millions and millions of our kith
and kin is the price that we have paid for that ignoble
attitude. Even today the tragedy of partition has not come
to a close. Kashmir has been partitioned. And now it
appears Nagaland is well on the way.

Fruits of ‘Not a Blade of Grass Grows’ Mentality

Our country is not wanting in people who lightly say,

4 Well, give it up whenever there is an aggression or even
a threat of aggression on parts of our motherland. If the
Chinese occupy portions of Ladakh, they say, “ Let it go.
Not a blade of grass grows there.” Some time back a
subtle propaganda was carried on about NEFA insinuating
that it was a godforsaken place, unfit for human habitation,
infested with poisonous snakes and leeches which would
even go into the throats of our army officers and suck their
blood ! Even our newspapers, on which lies the responsibility

94

Bunch of Thoughts

of educating the people and inculcating in them a spirit of
burning patriotism, gave it publicity which could only
create disgust for our own territory in the minds of our
people.

The same story has been repeated in the case of the
Rann of Kutch. Along with the shocking news of the
invasion and occupation by Pakistan of strategic points of
that area, disparaging descriptions of that area also began
to appear in our papers. Even the Central Government’s
brochure on the subject describes it as a desert where not
a blade of grass grows, that it is useless for most part of
the year being submerged under sea-water, and is so much
infested with flies that one cannot drink a cup of water
without swallowing some flies also along with it, and so on.

The close parallel in the descriptions of NEFA and
the Rann of Kutch, in the wake of aggression by enemies,
makes one almost suspect that this is probably an effort to
build up an atmosphere for allowing the enemies to swallow
those areas without the people in general resenting it. May-
be, such news items were given publicity without forethought.
That is worse. For, if a man does it with forethought, we
can only say that he is perverse. But if a man does it
naturally, it means that, deep in his heart, he has lost the
love for the motherland altogether. This is a very dangerous
state of affairs.

Our own leaders chose to call the naked aggression
by China and her occupation of tens of thousands of
square miles of our territory as 4 border conflict ’ or 4 boundary
dispute ’ ! Our leaders say, 4 borders shifting a few miles
here or a few miles there in these snow-bound moun-
tainous regions does not matter much’, which has invariably
meant thousands of square miles ‘here’ and never a single
mile 4 there ’ ! We have often heard them saying that those
borders are yet undefined and under dispute. Once Pandit
Nehru while referring to our territory occupied by the
Chinese, even referred to it as 4 supposed to be ours ’ !

Our Motherland — II

95

Keep the Vision Aflame

Alas! Nowhere do we find the vibrant and complete
vision of our motherland inspiring our people to strive
and sacrifice in defence of her integrity. A spirit of compro-
mise, an attitude of purchasing peace by parting with
portions of our motherland to whoever chooses to lay
axe on her, has taken hold of our people. Even the
memory of those parts under enemies’ possession is dying
away. How many of us feel the insult that we are denied
access to our holy Kailas and Manasarovar, that we have
no chance even to take a dip in the sacred Sindhu, which
gave us the name Hindu and Hindusthan? Takshashila,
once the world-centre for diffusion of Hindu thought, is no
more with us. Mulasthan (Multan), which witnessed the
incarnation of the terrible Narasimha for the protection
of Prahlad from the demon Hiranyakashipu, is once again
under the heels of a demonic domination. Do all these
memories burn in our veins?

We have especially to guard ourselves and our
coming generations in this regard, lest the oppressive
weight of extenal conditions blur our vision and crush
our spirit. We shall only deaden our conscience by
thinking and repeating that our present-day political
borders represent our complete motherland. How humiliat-
ing it is to our manliness and how insulting to our
intelligence! At times, political boundaries undergo some
changes on account of political impacts and the whimsical
fortunes of war. But it can never mean that the portions
we have lost politically are not parts of our motherland
at all.

Was not the whole of our country, until recently,
under the foreign domination of the British? Before that,
was not part of our country under Muslim domination for
centuries? Then, should we say that the whole of this
country was not ours at all during those periods? Did we
not, on the other hand, struggle and make sacrifices for
the liberation of those parts of our motherland from

96

Bunch of Thoughts

foreign domination? And is not every speck of our land
protected and purified by the sacred blood of countless
heroes and martyrs ? If, today, we say that what we
lost to the aggressors, whether they be the Muslims or the
Chinese, is not ours and belongs to them by right, then it
only means that we have lost the will to fight, that we
have forsaken our manliness to the extent that we have
begun to glorify our defeats and humiliations.

We have to beware, more than anything else, of this
deadening of our national will. If the will to fight, the
will to suffer and sacrifice for the sake of the liberty and
integrity of the motherland becomes extinct, then, that will
be the death-knell for the freedom and honour of the nation.

Devotion to motherland of the intense, dynamic,
uncompromising and fiery type is the life-breath of a free,
prosperous and glorious national existence on the face of
the earth. And we, the Hindus, are the inheritors of the
most sublime devotion for the motherland. Let those ancient
embers of devotion lying dormant in every Hindu heart be
fanned and joined in a sacred conflagration which shall
consume all the past aggressions on our motherland and bring
to life the dream of Bharat Mata reinstated in her pristine
undivided form.

VIH Children of the Motherland

Why the name ‘ Hindu* — Our social diversity , sign of
evolution— Many sects but one dharma—Its twofold
object— Reasons for present perversion— Varna-vyava-
sthct: Original form; not the cause of slavery; present-
day perversions— All our languages national— Myth of
Tamil separatism — Why Hindi as official language—
Present linguistic chauvinism— Ary an- Dravidian contro-
versy, a political game— The fresh dissensions— Realise
underlying unity— A duty by birth.

S INCE times immemorial, a great and cultured people
called by the name ‘ Hindu * have been living here as
the children of this sacred motherland. But there are some
who object to the name 4 Hindu ’ saying that it is compa-
ratively of a recent origin and moreover given to us by
the foreigners. They suggest the name ‘ Ary a' or ‘ Bharatiya ’
in the place of ‘Hindu’.

Why the Name ‘ Hindu ’ ?

‘ Arya’ is an old and proud name, no doubt. But it
has gone out of use especially for the last thousand years.
Moreover, the mischievous propaganda carried on by the
British under the cover of historical research during the
last century has struck deep into the minds of our people
the poisonous roots of the cooked-up Aryan-Dravidian

97

98

Bunch of Thoughts

controversy. The use of the name 4 Arya- ’ would therefore
be self-defeating in its purpose of bringing up before our
eyes the picture of the whole of our people stretching from
Himalayas to Kanyakumari, irrespective of all denomi-
nations, past and present.

£ Bharatiya ’ too is an ancient name associated with us
since hoary times. The name Bharat appears even in the
Vedas. Our puranas have also spoken of our motherland
as Bharat and of our people as Bhdratis. In fact, it con-
notes the same meaning as 4 Hindu ’. But today, there is
a misconception even regarding the word 4 Bharatiya ’. It is
commonly used as a translation of the word 4 Indian ’ which
includes all the various communities like the Muslim,
Christian, Parsi etc., residing in this land. So, the word
4 Bharatiya' too is likely to mislead us when we want to
denote our particular society. The word ‘Hindu’ alone
connotes correctly and completely the meaning that we
want to convey.

Nor is it historically correct to say that the name
‘Hindu’ is of recent origin or that it was given to us by
foreigners. We find the name Sapta-Sindhu in the oldest
records of the world— the Rig -Veda itself— as an epithet
applied to our land and our people. And it is also well
known that the syllable ‘S’ in Sanskrit is at times changed
to 4 H ’ in some of our Prakrit languages and even in
European languages. And thus the name Hapta-Hindu and
then ‘ Hindu ’ came into currency. Thus 4 Hindu ’ is a proud
name of our own origin and others learnt to denote us
by it only later on.

The word 4 Hindu ’ has been especially associated with
us during the crucial period of the last thousand years of
our history. Right from the days of Prithviraj, all our
great nation-builders, statesmen, poets and historians have
taken the name 4 Hindu ’ to denote our people and our
dharma. The dream of all our valiant freedom fighters like
Guru Govind, Yidyaranya and Shivaji had been to estab-
lish Hindu Swaraj. The name ‘Hindu’ carries with it the

Children of the Motherland

99

fresh memories of all those great lives, their deeds and their
aspirations and has thus become a word that at once re-
flects the unity, the sublimity and the speciality of our
people.

Sign of Evolution

Let us now have a look at our Hindu life. When people,
especially outsiders, see the multitude of our faiths, sects,
castes, languages, customs and habits, they are confounded
and they exclaim, “ With all these heterogeneous elements
and discordant notes, how can you call this a single
society at all? Where is the single way of life you
call e Hindu’ ?”

Well, this question stems from a superficial view of
our Hindu life. A tree, for example, appears to be full of
heterogeneous parts like the branches, leaves, flowers and
fruits. The trunk differs from the branches, the branches
from the leaves — all as if entirely different from one another.
But we know that all these apparent diversities are only
the varied manifestations of the same tree, the same sap
running through and nourishing all those parts. So is the
case with the diversities of our social life which have been
evolved down these millennia. They are no more a source
of dissension and disruption than a leaf or a flower is in the
case of a tree. This kind of natural evolution has been a
unique feature of our social life.

In fact, in the scheme of nature, the evolution of life
has followed the same pattern. Life, in its primitive stage,
is in the shapeless condition called ‘amoeba \ It is an
unicellular organism, complete in itself. It can be split into
two similar ones. It is in the primary state of protoplasm
and stands in the lowest rung of evolution. As evolution
progresses, various life species come into being with
differentiated organs to fulfil the increasing number of
functions. Finally, the human body is formed which is a
tremendously complex mechanism composed of innumerable
organs, each endowed with a specific function, but all of

100

Bunch of Thoughts

them bound with one another in a common current of life.
That is the highest evolved form of life on earth. So we
find that the different organs or diversities are not a sign
of immaturity or heterogeneity but of a highly evolved
state. All the organs, though apparently of diverse forms,
work for the welfare of the body and thus subscribe to its
strength and growth.

The Unique Picture

Likewise is the case with society. An evolved society,
for the proper functioning of various duties, develops
a multitude of diverse functional groups. Our old social
order laid down a specific duty for each group and guided
all the individuals and groups in their natural line of
evolution just as the intellect directs the activities of the
innumerable parts of the body. The highest scope for
development of the individual was secured in the process
of his best service to the Viral Purusha (Corporate Person)
of society. Such was the highly complex and organised
structure of society that we had envisaged as the practical
ideal and strove to realise it in life. This state, looked
at from a distance, appears as a bewildering diversity
but, in fact, denotes the highest evolved state of society
that ever existed in the whole of the world.

But the present-day mind, accustomed to view things
through the medium of foreign ‘ isms * and their high-sounding
slogans of equality, has failed to grasp this unique feature
and has raised the cry that all the various diversities of
our life are all so many sources of dissension and should
therefore be eradicated and rolled into a ‘ classless * society.
Merely because the various limbs and organs in a body
appear different and play their own specific functions, should
we call them different ‘classes’ and proceed to remove
them all to make the body a £ classless ’ entity ? If we do
that, will that be evolution or murder?

The unique feature of ‘unity in diversity’ has
expressed itself in all spheres of our social life, in its

Children of the Motherland 101

material as well as spiritual aspect. It is like a bright
lamp covered on all sides with glasses of various colours.
The inside light appears to take on the different hues and
shades according to the angle from which one views it. It
is this wondrous variety of expressions that has made some
people say that ours is not one society, not one nation, but
a c multinational country ’ !

We shall be able to analyse the present-day maladies
of our social life and be able to devise ways and means to
remedy them if we start with this correct appraisal of our
social life.

* Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti 9

The first special characteristic that strikes the eye of
an outsider is the bewildering variety of sects and sub-sects
like Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta, Vaidik, Bouddha, Jain,
Sikh, Lingayat, Aryasamaj etc., obtaining in the elastic
framework of our dharrna. The great masters and spon-
sors of all these updsands founded these various forms of
worship to suit the various mental aptitudes of our people,
but in the last analysis referred them all to the same goal
of realising the Ultimate Truth — variously called Brahma,
Atma, Shiva, Vishnu, Ishwara or even Shoonya or Maha
Shoonya.

See how the following shloka beautifully comprises and
harmonises the various sects and philosophies in the Hindu
fold:

4 ftir qq if-cHi

srteT t

#^mRTcrr: ^nrfcr

(He Whom the Shaivas worship as Shiva, the Vedantins
as Brahma, the Bouddhas as Buddha , the Naiyyayikas
(rationalists) as Karta, the Jains as Arhan, the MeemdmsaJcas
as Karma , may He, the Lord of the three worlds, fulfil our
desires.)

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Bunch of Thoughts

It was freedom of worship for individuals, freedom
to choose each his spiritual food to suit his peculiar spiritual
constitution.

But the diversities in the path of devotion did not
mean division in society. All are indivisible organs of
one common dharma which held society together. The
same philosophy of life, the same goal, the same supremacy
of the inner spirit over the outer gross things of matter,
the same faith in rebirth, the same adoration of certain
qualities like brahmacharya , satya etc., the same holy sam-
skars, in short, the same life-blood flowed through all
these limbs of our society. It was the propounder of pure
Advaita (non-dualism), Sri Shankaracharya, who prescribed
the Panchdyatana pooja— the worship of the five deities,
Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti, Surya and Ganapati — for the sake
of the common man. What a glorious example of the
harmony of the various paths to God Realisation! Diver-
sity of sect had seldom caused bloodshed or unholy rivalry
amongst our people in the past. Even while one tried to
establish one’s own thesis or while attempting to disprove
the others there was never any breaking of heads. This
deep current of inner unity is described beautifully in
Shivamahimna-stotra :

STOT *fhr:

trfw stpth 1 ^ i

^ II

(As the one ocean of all waters , You are the one goal of all
men , who, according to their diverse tastes , take to the several
paths, straight or crooked , considering this as superior or that
as wholesome among the differing paths-— the Vedas , the Samkhya ,
the Yoga , the Shaiva and the Vaishnava faiths.)

This has been our tradition right from the hoary
Vedic days down to the present times. All our great
spiritual masters have upheld this unique and all-compre-
hensive aspect of religion. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Children of the Motherland

103

has declared, “As many views, so many ways.” There can
be as many faiths and creeds as the variety of attitudes
and aptitudes of individuals.

The formation of many of these sects and aspects
of philosophy served another very useful purpose. They
helped to protect and maintain the integrity of our people.
The Sikh sect, for example, came into being to contain the
spread of Islam in Punjab. Later on, recognising the need
of the times. Guru Govind Singh, the tenth Guru of the
Sikhs, armed his disciples and turned them into a band
of national heroes. When the Christian missionaries were
trying to woo the people on our West Coast to their faith
in the name of an all-merciful personal God, Sri Madhwa-
charya rose with the bhakti aspect of our dharma to neu-
tralise that foreign poison. The efforts of Ramanujacharya
and Basaveshwara too were inspired with the aim of
removing feelings of high and low that had crept into the
people and unifying them all in a common bond of devo-
tion to God.

The Semitic Effects

It is our misfortune that this all-embracing aspect of
our dharma has been lost sight of today. There are several
reasons for this sad state of affairs. The narrow concept
of religion that the West practised seems to have had its
effect upon us. In all those Semitic religions — Judaism,
Christianity and Islam — a single way of worship is prescribed
for all. Those creeds have but one prophet, one scripture
and one God, other than whom there is no path of salva-
tion for the human soul. It requires no great intelligence
to see the absurdity of such a proposition. Naturally this
Semitic concept of religion bred intolerance and divided
people in the name of religion. Some countries in the
West therefore got disgusted with feuds begotten by such
religious fanaticism and took the extreme step of ousting
religion itself. The Communist and Socialist philosophies,
as taken up by Russia, are extreme instances of this revolt.

104

Bunch of Thoughts

This has had its effects on our country also. People
forgot that narrow sentiments of sectarian antagonism had
never existed here. In their blind following of all Western
developments, they too began to deride and disclaim
dharma in their life. That has resulted in disrupting the
benign bonds that used to hold the people together and
inspire them for a higher life.

Present Perversion

We are witnessing its disastrous effects to-day. Stories
of mutual derision, even to the extent of becoming house-
hold jokes, are rampant throughout the length and breadth
of the country. There is talk of 4 domination ’ and 4 imperi-
alism’ of one sect over another. If we are to speak in
terms of 4 domination ’ then we have to say that the North
is being 4 tyrannised ’ under the philosophical 4 imperialism 9
of the South ! Because, all the major schools of philoso-
phical thought that have encompassed the whole of our
land including the remotest corners of the North were pro-
pounded by the great teachers born in the South. Shankara,
the originator of the incomparable Advaita philosophy,
Ramanuja with his effulgence of bhakti of V isishtddvaita,
Madhwa with his sublime appeal of Dvaita , the duality
of soul and God, and Vallabha too who looked upon the
universe as a blissful projection of God Himself— all of them
are from the South. So, should we say the South is philo-
sophically dominating over the whole of the country? How
absurd! Well, is my head dominating over my legs? Are
not both equally the parts of the same body?

The part which is geographically called North is as
dear to us as the one called South. Ganga is as holy to
us as Cauvery. The great Shivalinga formed out of ice in
the Himalayan cave at Amarnath claims the same devo-
tion from all of us as the Linga at Rameshwaram. We are
intrinsically one, transcending all superficial barriers of
distance, creed or sect. It is because this sap of unity is
dried up today that all the various branches of the great

Children of the Motherland

105 ^

tree of our dharma are falling apart.

Secondly, the name 4 Hindu’ which signified our all-
comprehensive dharma has fallen into disrepute. People
have begun to feel ashamed of calling themselves Hindus.
Thus the golden thread that strung together all these -
pearls of various spiritual hues and shades has been tom
asunder and the various sects and creeds have begun to
take a pride in their own exclusive names and parading-
themselves as non-Hindus.

Some of the Sikhs, Jains, Lingayats and Aryasamajists-
declare that they are separate from Hindus. Prominent
Sikh leaders are demanding and agitating for a separate-
sectarian Sikh State — though under the garb of a linguistic -
state, the Punjabi Suba. And to strengthen their demand
some of them have stooped to justify the creation of a
separate State for Muslims, i.e., Pakistan. They have even
gone to the extent of seeking its sympathy and help, for-
getting all the barbaric atrocities and insults they had
suffered at the hands of Pakistanis during the days of'
Partition. What greater misfortune could there be than
that the present Sikh leaders should come forward to treat,
their great sect on par with the avowed destroyers of our-
desh and dharma and even seek the help of those very
hostile forces from whose aggression it was born to protect -
us !

The head of the Namadhari-panth of Sikhs once said,.
“ A person who is not a devout Hindu cannot be a Sikh
either, cannot be a disciple of those great gurus who shed
their blood in the cause of the mother society and mother
religion, i.e., the Hindu.” Sri Guru Govind Singh had
declared, “A true Sikh is one who has faith in the Vedas
and Bhagavad-Gita and who worships Rama and Krishna.”
It is undiluted loyalty to these words of the gurus that
makes a true Sikh. Those Gurus had forged that band of"
heroes for the protection of Hindu Society and called them
Sikhs as being devoted shishyas (disciples), or as Khalsa.
for being virtuous and valorous, or as Akali for being the-

106

Bunch of Thoughts

worshippers of AMI — the timeless Reality.

In fact their whole life, even to this day, is permeated
with the same thoughts and feelings as the rest of Hindus.
Even as recently as a couple of decades ago one son
from every Hindu family used to be named a Sikh. Our
blood relations continue even to this day. It is only the
poison of political ambitions that has roused the demon of
separatism in that otherwise devoted and heroic e sword arm *
of Hinduism.

The Anti-Hindu Government

Even our great persons at the helm of affairs have
unwittingly fallen a prey to the pernicious idea of Sikh
• separatism. We often hear them calling upon ‘ Hindus and
.Sikhs’ to live in amity and harmony. It never occurs to
them that persons in such high positions using an expression
which puts a seal of sanction on separatism between Sikhs
and the rest of Hindus would only further embitter their
relations. It is clearly written in our Constitution that
Hinduism includes Sikh, Jain and Buddhist sects, which
means that the expression ‘Hindu and Sikh 5 is opposed
to the Constitution. What a misfortune that persons
of such a stature should unconsciously insult our Constitution
in this way !

Similarly, in a handout of Harijan Sevak Sangh the
phrase ‘ Hindus and Harijans 5 was freely used.

The policy of the present Government has only added
fuel to the fire. The very word c Hindu 5 has become an
anathema to our present rulers. Whoever disclaims the
Hindu fold and parades himself as a non-Hindu minority
finds a special favour with our Government. That has
resulted in many of our sects vying with each other to claim
that they are non -Hindus and to stretch their hands
for special privileges in the share of power and pelf. And
-especially when they find that our leaders go to the extent
of granting special political status to non -Hindu, anti-
Hindu communities, their separatism and even anti-Hindu

Children of the Motherland

107-

spirit is all the more roused. They find that for being
non-Hindus, the Muslims got an independent State of their
own. The Christians, too, are well on the way to achieve -
their independent ‘Nagaland’. The Christian institutions,,
which even to this day fly the Union Jack on August 15
and carry on fanatic Christian propaganda, have no fear-
of losing their Government grants. On the other hand, if
a Hindu educational institution starts Hindu prayers and
Gita recitation. Government comes down with a heavy hand
with threats to stop its grants.

How unfortunate that our own leaders, our own people,,
should be digging at the roots of our social cohesion and-
destroying the spirit of identity that informed and blended,
all the various sects into a harmonious whole in the past!

Once the Glory

The other main feature that distinguished our society
was the Varna-vyavasthd. But today it is being dubbed
‘casteism’ and scoffed at. Our people have come to feel
that the mere mention of Varna-vyavasthd is something:
derogatory. They often mistake the social order implied
in it for social discrimination.

The feeling of inequality, of high and low, which has-
crept into the Varna system is comparatively of recent
origin. The perversion was given a further fillip by the-
scheming Britisher in line with his 4 divide and rule ’ policy.
But in its original form, the distinctions in that social order-
did not imply any discrimination of big or small, high or-
low, among its constituents. On the other hand, the Gita-
tells us that the individual who does his assigned duties in
life in a spirit of selfless service only worships God through .
such performance :

^cR7rpj]T T TM c i: i

Society was conceived of as the fourfold manifestation'
of Almighty to be worshipped by all, each in his own way
and according to his capacity. If a Brahmana became •
great by imparting knowledge, a Kshatriya was hailed as-.

108

Bunch of Thoughts

equally great for destroying the enemy. No less important
was the Vaishya who fed and sustained society through
agriculture and trade or the Shudra who served society
through his art and craft. Together and by their mutual
interdependence in a spirit of identity, they constituted the
social order.

‘The Wrong Scent

Looking at its present decadent and perverted form
and mistaking it for its original form, there are some who
never tire of propagating that it was the Varna-vyavasthti
that brought about our downfall all down these centuries.
But does this interpretation bear the scrutiny of history?
Castes there were in those ancient times too, continuing
for thousands of years of our glorious national life. There
is nowhere any instance of it having hampered the progress
or disrupted the unity of society. It, in fact, served as a
great bond of social cohesion.

Even during the past one thousand years when our
nation fell before foreign onslaughts, there is no instance
on record to show that caste distinctions were at the root
of our national disunity that helped the invaders to conquer
us. The person responsible for the defeat of Prithviraj,
the Hindu King at Delhi, by Mohammed Ghori was his
own caste- relation Jayachand. The person who hounded
Rana Pratap from forest to forest was none other than his
own caste-man Raja Mansingh. Shivaji too was opposed
by men of his own caste. Even in the last-ditch battle between
the Hindus and the British at Poona in 1818, it was a close
relative of the Peshwas, Natu by name, who lowered the
Hindu flag and hoisted the British flag. A veritable race
■of such traitors there was, but they were so because they
fell a prey to other temptations and for other reasons.
Caste never came into the picture.

If the caste system had really been the root cause of
our weakness, then our people should have succumbed to
foreign invasion far more easily than those people who had

Children of the Motherland

109

no castes. But what does history say ? After the death
of Mohammed Pygamber, his followers poured out from
Arabstan in waves after waves with their swords dripping
with blood and overran vast portions of the globe, trampling
under their feet all the various empires that lay in their
path — 'Iran, Egypt, Rome, Europe and all ethers right up
to China. The people of those countries had no castes or
sub-castes. But all the pomp, pelf and glory of those
mighty empires were swept away by the fury of the Muslim
onslaught — many of them never to appear again on the
world stage.

The same tides of fanatic fury dashed against the shores
of Hindusthan also. But the picture that we see here is
altogether different. Our people braved the onslaughts
relentlessly for over a thousand years and instead of being
sucked up, ultimately succeeded in crushing completely
the forces of the enemy. The throne of Muslim power at
Delhi lay shattered to pieces as a symbol of the conquering
spirit of our people. All down these centuries of fierce
struggle for survival carried on until final victory, be it
remembered, the castes did exist.

We know as a matter of history that our north-western
and north-eastern areas, where the influence of Buddhism
had disrupted the caste system, fell an easy prey to the
onslaughts of Muslims. Gandhar, now called Kandahar,
became completely Muslimised. Conversion took a
heavy toll in East Bengal also. But the areas of Delhi
and Uttar Pradesh, which were considered to be very
orthodox and rigid in caste restrictions, remained predomin-
antly Hindu even after remaining as the very citadels
of Muslim power and fanaticism for a number of centuries.
We know that even as late as Shivaji’s time, the so-called
‘ low castes ’ also played an epic role in the resurrection
of swardj.

Thus history bears eloquent witness to both sides of'
the picture. On the one hand, the so-called c caste-ridden *
Hindu Society has remained undying and unconquerable-

no

Bunch of Thoughts

.and still has the vitality to produce a Ramakrishna, a
Vivekananda, a Tilak and a Gandhi after facing for over
two thousand years the depredations of Greeks, Shakas,
Hunas, Muslims and even Europeans, by one shock of
-which, on the other hand, the so-called casteless societies
crumbled to dust never to rise again.

Adding Fuel to the Fire

Today, of course, the caste system has degenerated
beyond all recognition. Added to the perversity over the
centuries, a new factor has been introduced into our
body-politic which has further intensified the rigidity and
perversity of castes by those very persons who are most
vociferous in their denunciation of the system. During
elections, their chief consideration for selection of candidates
is caste and their appeal to the voters is mainly to their
caste. At the root of the rising tempo of caste hatred and
rivalry lies this appeal to gross selfishness and love of
power in the name of caste. Even the state machinery is
being prostituted for further widening these dissensions.
.Separatist consciousnes breeding jealousy and conflict is
being fostered in sections of our people by naming them
Harijans, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and so on and
by parading the gift of special concessions to them in a bid
to make them all their slaves with the lure of money.

In their hearts of hearts, very few of these anti-caste
zealots experience the sense of unity that can transcend all
the present-day perversities. Anti-caste tirade has verily
become a mask for them to strengthen their own positions
among their caste fellowmen. To what extent this venom
has entered our body-politic can be surmised from an
incident which occurred some years age. There is a
'‘Victory Pillar’ near Poona, raised by the English to
commemorate their victory over the Peshwas. An eminent
leader of the Harijans once addressed his caste-brethren
under that pillar. He declared that the pillar was a symbol
of the victory over the Brahmins as it was they who had

Children of the Motherland 111.

fought under the British and defeated the Peshwas, the
Brahmins. How heart-rending it is to hear an eminent
leader thus describing the hated sign of slavery as an
emblem of victory, and the despicable action of fighting
as slaves of a foreigner against our own kith and kin as
an achievement of glory! How utterly his eyes must have
been blinded by hatred, not able even to discern the simple
fact of who were the victors and who the defeated ! What .
a perversity!

Many Strings, but Same Melody

The diversity of our national heritage has expressed'
itself in the field of our languages also. Considering the
vastness of our country and of our people, it is nothing to
be wondered at. If any person in our country starts from
his place and moves on foot from one province to another,
he can observe a gradual change in language after every
ten or fifteen miles, a natural transformation from one
language to the other, and coalescing at the border. Even,
in the same language, there is remarkable variance in the
usage of words and expressions from place to place owing
to the closeness to other languages. It only shows that all
these languages are intrinsically one. It is like the gradual
break-up of colour in a rainbow. Though it appears res-
plendent with a variety of hues, it is the same ray of the
Sun which has taken those charming garbs. Similar is the-
glory of our languages.

Take any language in the country, we find the same
sublime sentiments, the same inspiring thoughts and ideals-
reflected in all its literature. The same personality of Sri
Ramachandra stands eulogised by a Valmiki in Sanskrit,
by a Tulsi in Hindi and by a Kamba in Tamil. What
does it matter if the medium changes provided the same-
light shines through all of them? It is just like a man
dressing himself in various beautiful garments— of course,,
all befitting his culture and character. The man does-
not change on that account.

112

Bunch of Thoughts

These days we are hearing much about Tamil. Some
protagonists of Tamil claim that it is altogether a distinct
language with a distinct culture of its own. They disclaim
faith in the Vedas, saying that Tirukkural is their distinct
scripture. Tirukkural is undoubtedly a great scriptural text
more than two thousand years old. Saint Tiruvalluvar is
its great author. We remember him in our Pratah-smaranam.
There is an authentic translation of that book by V. V. S.
Iyer, the well-known revolutionary. What is the theme
propounded therein, after all? The same old concept of
chaiurvidha-purushartha is put forth as the ideal. Only the
chapter on moksha comes in the beginning. It does not
advocate any particular mode of worship or name of God
but enunciates the pure ideal of mohsha. Thus it is not
even a sectarian book. Mahabharata also eulogises the
same picture of social life as Tirukkural presents. Except
with the Hindu, this unique vision of social life is not
found anywhere else. It is thus purely a Hindu text
propounding grand Hindu thoughts in a chaste Hindu
language.

In fact, all our languages, whether Tamil or Bengali,
Marathi or Punjabi, are our national languages. All these
languages and dialects are like so many blossoming flowers
shedding the same rich fragrance of our national culture.
The source of inspiration for all these has been that queen
of languages, the language of gods — Sanskrit. By virtue
■of its richness and sacred association it alone can serve as
the common medium of our national intercourse. Nor is
it very difficult to acquire a working knowledge of Sanskrit.
Sanskrit is to this day a great binding factor of our national
unity. But unfortunately it is not in common usage now.
Nor do our present rulers possess that moral pride and
:grit to bring it into vogue.

English or Hindi ?

There are some who desire that English should continue
:as the ‘lingua franca* for all time to come. Language

Children of the Motherland

113

being a living medium of human intercourse, the
foreign langage English is bound to bring in its train
English culture and English life-patterns also. And
allowing foreign life-patterns to take root here would mean
the undermining of our own culture and dliarma. Centuries
of foreign rule has failed to destroy our great nation only
because we have preserved our cultural heritage through
the media of our languages. Acceptance of English would
mean sapping those very mainsprings of our vitality. English
was just an artificial imposition that accompanied the
English domination and as such must be thrown off now
that we have become free. To continue to give it the same
status as it enjoyed during the foreign domination would be
a sign of mental slavery and a blot on our national prestige in
the eyes of the world.

There is not a shadow of doubt that English is bound
to go for two very solid reasons. Firstly, during the British
regime, there was a natural tendency on the part of the
people to learn the language of the rulers, become pro-
ficient in it and even face the British in their own language.
Now, with the Britishers gone, that urge also has naturally
disappeared. Secondly, during the British rule non-learning
of English put a virtual ban on entry into any lucrative
post in Government service. Without English-learning even
the best of intellectuals were thrown into the wilderness, not
only financially but in social life as well. Now that fear
also is gradually going. English language was just a part
of British rule and no amount of artifical puffing up can
•make it survive for long after its main support has
collapsed.

As a solution to the problem of ‘lingua franca* till
the time Sanskrit takes that place, we shall have to give
priority to Hindi on the score of convenience. Naturally
we have to prefer that form of Hindi which, like all other
Bharatiya languages, stems from Sanskrit and gets suste-
nance from Sanskrit for its future growth in all fields of
modern knowledge like science and technology. It does not

114

Bunch of Thoughts

mean that Hindi is the only national language or that it is
the oldest or the richest of all our languages. In fact,
Tamil is a much richer and older language. But Hindi has
come to be the spoken language of a large section of our
people and is the easiest of all our languages for learning
and speaking. If we go to Kashi or Prayag on the occasion
of Kumbha or some other mela where people from the far
North, South, East and West flock to have a holy dip in the
Ganga, the vast multitude manages to express itself only in
Hindi, however crude it may be.

Long Live All Languages !

We have therefore to take to Hindi in the interest of
national unity and self-respect and not allow ourselves
to be swept off our feet by slogans like 4 Hindi imperialism *
or ‘ domination of the North ’, etc. In fact, Bengali, Marathi
and Gujarati have made tremendous strides in spite of
British rule. They have succeeded in producing such out-
standing works as have drawn unstinted praise from the
greatest men of letters the world over. No one would
ever tolerate the idea of destroying our various beautiful
languages which have been so ably expressing the soul of
our nation for the last so many centuries only to retain a
single language. Any apprehensions of encroachment or
dominance over other languages by Hindi are therefore a
pure fiction cooked up by interested politicians.

In fact, with the rise of Hindi, all our sister languages
also will flourish. The enemy of all our Bharatiya languages
is English. Once an advocate in a prominent city in
Tamilnad stated that Hindi would destroy Tamil. But
when asked why he continued to speak in English and not
in Tamil in district and lower courts which permitted the
use of Tamil, he had no answer for it. The fact is, the
real enemy of Tamil is not Hindi ; rather English is the enemy
of both. This is not the case of Tamil alone, but of all our
other lauguages as well.

This is how language has become one more point of

Children of the Motherland

115

fission after the advent of Swaraj. The formation of linguistic
states has given one more handle to politicians to work
up linguistic chauvinism in the minds of people. It is
very strange that even eminent men indulge in mud-sling-
ing at other languages. A very eminent personality from
the South once said in a public meeting that Hindi had
but two great literary works — one, the Tulsi Ramdyana
and the other. Railway Time Table! To match this, a
noted Marathi dramatist made one of his characters say,
“ Southern languages ? Put some pebbles in a clay pot and
shake it vigorously and you hear those languages!” No
doubt, this was said out of fun, but such fissiparous fun
and ignorant mocking will only make matters worse.

The Great Myth

Today so many other new points of dissension and
disintegration are cropping up. The Aryan-Dravidian contro-
versy, for example, is very recent and artificial. It is one
of those modern superstitions being assiduously built up
by unscrupulous power-seeking persons. Whatever diversity
of race we may have had in this country to begin with
was obliterated long ago by time and the processes of
history. Two thousand years ago the country had been
grouped under Pancha Gowda and Pancha Gravida, the
South coming under the latter name. It was not a racial
but only a territorial denomination. The people in the South
were always considered to be as much Aryan as those in
the North. In our country the word c Ary a ’ was always
a sign of culture and not the name of a race. All through
the puranic literature, wives address husbands as £ Arya. ’
Surely the wives were not andrya ! 6 Arya ’ simply conveyed
‘a noble person’. We find Sri Krishna too using the
word 4 Arya ’ in the same context in Bhagavad-Gila. When
Arjuna’s heart fails on the opening day of Kurukshetra
war, Sri Krishna chides him for his anaryajushtam i.e.,
ignoble attitude.

It is being made out today that the stmggle between

116

Bunch of Thoughts

Rama and Ravana was the one between Arya and Dravida .
How ludicrous ! Ravana himself was a great Sanskrit scholar
and a devotee of Shiva. He is even reported to have set
Sama-Veda to music. His father Vaishrava was a Brahmin
and so was his grandfather, Pulastya. If anything, Ravana
was oppressing the South and Rama only liberated the
Southern people from his oppression !

And again, the Harsha-Pulakeshin struggle is sought
to be made out as an attempt by the North to dominate
the South and its successful rebuttal by the South. But
Pulakeshin was not a Dravidian at all, much less a Tami-
lian ! His kingdom was founded in Pratishthan— modern
Paithan — on the banks of Godavari in Maharashtra. In
any case, the two kings came to terms and lived amicably.
The North-South controversy is pure and simple power-
politics got up by modern politicians who find the present
climate extremely congenial for sowing seeds of all sorts,
of separatism.

The Fresh Inventions

We also find ever new denominations coming up in
common usage — all connoting a fundamental disparity
between one section of the people and the other. In the
natural course of our national life, there are some who live
in cities, mainly educated employees, industrial labourers
and traders ; some others, mainly agriculturists, live in
villages and some have as yet remained in jungles and hills.
But those forest-dwellers, the vanavasis, are now called
adivdsis , aboriginals, as if all others are upstarts and settlers
coming here from somewhere outside!

Then there is also the artificial barrier created between
the city-dwellers and villagers. The so-called educated man
feels a class by himself, and looks down upon the village
folk . as uncivilised. The evil legacy of British rule, when
the English-educated used to dress and behave as their
English masters and looked down upon the common
people in a spirit of contempt, is still continuing. The

Children of the Motherland

117

English-educated still feels himself somewhat different,
somewhat above the other people. Today mere is a call
to the educated to go back to villages and improve the
standard of life of the villagers. But how many really go ?
The very idea of village life chills their heart !

Let us not forget that it is the common folk in the
villages who have been the real backbone of our nation.
Even in the past, whenever our society was threatened by
foreign invasions, it was these ‘village rustics’, these very
‘ unlettered masses ’ who rose to the rescue of swadesh and
■swadharma, regardless of the endless sufferings and sacri-
fices they had to endure.

There is now a clamour for ‘equality for women’ and
their ‘ emancipation from man’s domination ’ ! Reservation
■of seats in various positions of power is being claimed on
the basis of their separate sex, thus adding one more ‘ism’—
‘‘sexism!’ — to the array of casteism, communalism, lin-
guism etc.

Realise the Grand Unity

Such is the picture of our people, past and present.
The picture should naturally spur every son of this soil
to revive once again the age-old spirit of identity in our
people in all its pristine purity. The whole of our people
should be reinstalled as the living God in our hearts.
In fact, such a spirit of identity has been the one undying
message of our ancient culture. The others stopped at
saying ‘ Fatherhood of God ’ and ‘ brotherhood of man.’
We travelled far ahead and realised the identity right from
Brahma down to inert matter.

Let us therefore revive that pure spirit of oneness bom
■out of the realisation that we are common children of this
great and sacred motherland Bharat Mata. Let us cry a halt
to the various discordant notes being raised knowingly or
unknowingly, landing us in confusion and fission. Let us
not be like the blindmen in the story, who touched the
various parts of an elephant and gave their own descriptions

118

Bunch of Thoughts

of the animal. The one who caught hold of its leg compared
it to a pillar, the other who touched its trunk said it
was like a serpent, and another who embraced its belly
likened it to a huge drum and so on. Each was partly
right, but all were wrong in their conception of the animal
in its totality.

Once the life-stream of unity begins to flow freely in all
the veins of our body-politic, the various limbs of our
national life will automatically begin to function actively
and harmoniously for the welfare of the nation as a whole.
Such a living and growing society will preserve out of its
multitude of old systems and patterns whatever is essential
and conducive to its progressive march, throw off those as
have outlived their utility and evolve new systems in their
place. No one need shed tears at the passing of the old
order nor shirk to welcome the new order of things. That
is in the nature of all living and growing organisms. As a
tree grows, ripe leaves and dry twigs fall off making way
for fresh growth. The main thing to bear in mind is to
see that the life-sap of oneness permeates all parts of our
social set-up. Every system or pattern will live or change
or even entirely disappear according as it nourishes that
life-sap or not. Hence, it is useless in the present social
context to discuss about the future of all such systems.
The supreme call of the times is to revive the spirit of in-
herent unity and the awareness of its life-purpose in our
society. All other things will take care of themselves.

A Duty by Birth

Let us all remember that this unity is ingrained in our
blood from our very birth, because we are all born as
Hindus. Some wise men of today tell us that no man is
born as Hindu or Muslim or Christian but as a simple
human being. This may be true about others. But for a
Hindu, he gets the first samskcLr when he is still in the
mother’s womb, and the last when his body is consigned
to the flames. There are sixteen samskdrs for the Hindu

-Children of the Motherland

119

which make him what he is. In fact, we are Hindus even
before we emerge from the womb of our mother. We are
therefore born as Hindus. About the others, they are born
to this world as simple unnamed human beings and later
on, either circumcised or baptised, they become Muslims or
Christians.

Therefore, to strengthen the unity and spirit of identity
in our society is a duty bom with our birth, our sahaja
karma. And that which is our sahaja karma must not be
given up even if it may appear to be defective.

^TTR-fq- 1

says the Gita. It is therefore our pre-eminent duty to see
that the present differences and dissensions eating into our
vitals are removed and our society made once again into
a unified and harmonious whole.

We have also to remember that all other persuasions
like politcs etc., come later in life as we grow. Political
and other factors are only temporary and superficial.
Political parties come and pass away. Even today several
parties are ranging one against another and who knows,
the party at the zenith of popularity and power today may
go down tomorrow and another may come up in its place.
The political parties are by nature transitory. But society
is eternal, immortal. So many kings and dynasties, so
many ways of administration, so many political and
economic systems have come and gone during the last
thousands of years. But we as a people bound to-
gether in ties of blood and history, remain one and whole.
Therefore, we have to discriminate between what is
permanent and what is transient and stick to that which
is permanent ; and if the transient comes in the way of the
permanent, it has to be given up.

zrt srerffr srsre i

IpTffT cPFT srs IT ff II

(He who gives up the permanent in pursuance of the transient
loses the permanent ; nor does the transient remain with him.)

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Bunch of Thoughts

Dhruvam (permanent) is society and politics is adhruvam
(transient). If in the race for politics we give up society
and destroy its inherent unity we will have gone against
our fundamental duty.

Call of Real Devotion

Hindu Society, whole and integrated, should therefore
be the single point of devotion for all of us. No other
consideration whether of caste, sect, language, province or
party should be allowed to come in the way of that
devotion to society. That is the criterion for real devotion „
There is a very famous episode in the life of Mira. When
she was obstructed in her devotion to Sri Krishna by her
own relatives, she wrote to Goswamy Tulsidas seeking his.
advice. He replied in the form of a beautiful poem
which appears in the Vinaya Patrika wherein he has said

: sn% '*f tut t^fr

dfsR sfrrfe tfr tut wfa vth i

That means, those who do not love Rama, i.e., the object of
devotion, and who come as an obstacle must be considered
as ten million times an enemy, though they may be extremely
near and dear to us. Then he has given the examples where
the mother, father and all others were given up for
the sake of the realisation of one’s object of devotion.
Therefore, in the devotion to our Living God, the Hindu
Society, all the ruling disruptive passions in our minds
today have to be given up, as they come in the way of our
discharging the essential and foremost duty of upholding
and strengthening the inherent unity of our people.

May we all rise to take the life-giving message of our
innate unity, transcending and submerging all other barriers,,
to every Hindu hearth and home and light up in every
Hindu heart the effulgent flame of the realisation of a single
living Samdj adevathd throbbing with life in Her multitude
of glorious expressions.

IX For a Virile National Life

Nation, a positive concept — What modern scholars say —
Hindu , child of Bharat — Community of culture, history
etc. — Hence , Hindu Nation — Non-Hindus and test of
nationality— Not nurture but culture counts — Call to non-
Hindus — Revive spirit of assimilation — Non- Hindus in
Hindu Rashtra — Basis for national integration.

D R. KESHAV BAURAM HEDGEWAR, founder of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was from his early
boyhood devoted to the cause of nation and was in the thick
of the various movements going on at that time for the
liberation of our motherland. He was for several years in the
revolutionary movement. He later on plunged into the
agitations and organisational work of the Indian National
Congress.

But he soon discovered that the underlying idea in all
those movements was one of merely ousting the British.
And that idea was equated with nationalism. For most
of the leading men of those times, ‘ anti-Britishism ’ and
‘nationalism’ were interconvertible terms. Our founder felt
dissatisfied with that superficial kind of thinking. He
knew from his deep understanding of the history of our
nation and also of other nations that the concept of
‘ nation ’ was a positive one and did not depend upon
antagonism to anyone else. And he also knew that the
6 121

122

Bunch of Thoughts

slightest distortion in the initial concept of our national
goal would, in spite of the best of intentions, ultimately
lead us to irretrievable catastrophic results. Our fate would
be like that of the person who started to make the idol of
Vinayaka but ended with making a monkey :

f^FTPT^ I

It was after profound cogitation along these lines that
Dr. Hedgewar decided to start the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh on the basis of the correct and positive and abiding
concept of our nationhood.

What, then, is that true concept of our nationality?

Let us start with stating and analysing its concept as
understood and practised in the modern world, as that
would help us appreciate the subject better in the present
context.

Modern Scholars Say

How did the concept of a £ nation ’ first manifest itself in
the West ? To begin with, various groups of people
delimited themselves by some sort of natural territorial
boundaries. The people residing in a particular territory
developed a feeling that they were the sons of that soil,
that they had their own way of life which they had to
preserve and protect and that their interests were not the
same as those of other similar groups and that, in short,
they were a single, separate and distinct entity. They thus
formed themselves into cohesive, indivisible groups. At
various times and from various countries, leading men of
thought gave expression to the idea of a 4 nation ’ to define
those groups. If we collect the various expressions and
definitions put forth by them and bring out their essence, we
arrive at certain simple conclusions.

The first requisite for a nation is a contiguous piece of
land delimited as far as possible by natural boundaries, to
serve as the substratum on which the nation has to live,
grow and prosper. Then the second requisite is, the people
living in that particular territory should have developed

For a Virile National Life

123

love and adoration for it as their motherland, [as the place
of their sustenance, their security and prosperity. In
short, they should feel that they are the children of that
soil.

Then, that people should not be just a mass of men,
just a juxtaposition of heterogeneous individuals. They
should have evolved a definite way of life moulded by
community of life-ideals, of culture, of feelings, sentiments,
faith and traditions. If people thus become united into a
coherent and well-ordered society having common traditions
and aspirations, a common memory of the happy and
unhappy experiences of their past life, common feelings
of friendship and hostility, and all their interests inter-
twined into one identical whole — then such people living
as children of that particular territory may be termed a
‘ nation \

Hindu —the Child of Bharat

If we apply this definition acknowledged by all the
learned men in the world to our own country, we find
that this great country of ours, extending in the north
from the Himalayas — with all its branches spreading north,
south, east and west, and with the territories included
in those great branches— right up to the Southern ocean
inclusive of all the islands, is one great natural unit. As
the child of this soil, our well-evolved society has been
living here for thousands of years. This society has been
known, especially in modern times, as the Hindu Society.
This also is a historical fact. For, it is the forefathers of
the Hindu People who have set up standards and traditions
of love and devotion for the motherland. They also
prescribed various duties and rites with a view to keep
aglow in the people’s mind for all time to come, a living
and complete picture of our motherland and devotion to
it as a Divine Entity. And again it is they who shed their
blood in defence of the sanctity and integrity of the
motherland. That all this has been done only by the

124

Bunch of Thoughts

Hindu People is a fact to which our history of thousands
of years bears eloquent testimony. It means that only
the Hindu has been living here as the child of this soil.
All our great personalities right from hoary ages down to
modern times have, by their life and example, only con-
firmed the continuity of this sacred bond.

The common adoration for the motherland has made
our people, in a way, related by blood to one another— from
the man in Kashi to the man in Kanyakumari and from
a forest-dweller to a city-dweller. All the various castes,
the various ways of worshipping God, the various languages
are all expressions of one great homogeneous solid Hindu
People — the children of this motherland.

Community of Culture

Then we, the Hindu People, have had an ideal viz., to
realise the Ultimate Truth. In keeping with that ideal we
have got a dharma which is incomparable for its breadth
of vision encompassing all grades and aspects of human
life. We have a current of life, which we call our samshriti
(culture) which instils sublime qualities of purity, character,
fortitude and self-sacrifice in the individual, enabling him
to attain that highest goal of human existence. That stamp
of culture is manifest even in our day-to-day life, sublima-
ting the mundane into the transcendent. For example, it
is a common custom with us to call every woman, even
a little girl, by the word md, i.e., mother. The same
meaning is conveyed whatever other words we use in our
various dialects. That is, every woman, whatever her age
or status in life, except a man’s wife, is a manifestation
of the mother to that man. This is a special feature of
our culture.

The famous instance of Shivaji who sent back
honourably and laden with presents the beautiful daughter-
in-law of the Muslim Subhedar of Kalyan captured in war
(though it appears exceptional in the eyes of the foreign,
especially Muslim, historians) is a very ordinary instance

For a Virile National Life

125

symbolic of the sublime culture of this land. And this is
shared even by the commoners here.

There is a revealing instance that took place during
the holocaust after the assassination of Gandhiji. An orgy
of murder, loot and arson had been let loose on innocent
people by anti-national and subversive elements. One
such murderous mob attacked a house. Only the lady of
the house was in. Out of terror she opened the door. On
seeing her alone, the mob paused for a while. Notorious
ruffians were leading the mob. But even then the ancient
call of our culture niutruvat par ad dr e-shu (look upon other
women as mother) which was in their blood, made them
treat her with utmost courtesy. They told her that they
were out to burn and loot, but would arrange for her
conduct to a place of safety. Two of them were even
deputed for her escort ! In spite of the past thousand-
year -long corroding influence of foreigners and the all-round
immorality raging among our ‘top class’ at present, such
glowing instances of character are still to be found in our
common people. This gives us an idea of the distinctively
pure and sublime culture which has been reared in our
hearts. It has given us a complexion all our own.

Also, down all these thousands of years, we have
produced a whole galaxy of seers and sages, heroes and
saviours who have led us in our march in the search of God
and attainment of material affluence and honour. They built
up a social order to meet the needs of various kinds of
individuals, developed economic systems for the proper
production and distribution of wealth and formed political
institutions for the protection and upkeep of the orderly
evolution of society. As a result, during all these centuries
of our existence here, we have had similar experiences of
prosperity and adversity, of friendship and hostility, all
our interests inextricably joined together.

Whenever, by mistake, we fought with one another
thinking that the interests of a particular group were in
opposition to those of another group and developed separate

126

Bunch of Thoughts

and mutually hostile kingdoms, we lost the battle against
the foreigners and all were reduced to abject slavery and
misery. The same was the result when one section of our
people was hostile to some foreign power and another
section mistook that foreign power to be its friend. The
case of Prithviraj Chouban is in point. His enemy was
Mohammed Ghori. Jayachand made friends with Mohammed
Ghori. Here were two prominent persons of our country-
one of them an enemy and the other a friend of the
same invader. The result was that Prithviraj was defeated
and killed. Jayachand also was destroyed. Mohammed
Ghori became the king. And the whole train of disasters
which we have been experiencing for the last eight hundred
years and which in the present times has cluminated in the
partition of our country, was set in motion. On the other
hand, whenever we realised, even for a short period, that
our interests were indivisible, that our friends and foes
were alike to all cf us, such immense power was generated
in our national life that the power of the foreigner lay
shattered at our feet. All the requisites for making a full-
fledged nation are thus fulfilled in the life of this great
Hindu People. Therefore, we say that in this land of ours,
Bharat, the national life is of the Hindu People. In short,
this is the Hindu Nation.

Two Opposites Concur

But some of the so-called ‘secularists’ in our country
become restless when they hear words like dharma and
samskriti while we explain the concept of a ‘ nation \ es Why
do you bring religion into politics?” they ask. So let us
take the instance of Stalin, who had denounced God and
religion as being an opium meant to delude the ignorant.
Explaining the concept 4 nation ’, he once said that a nation
is not formed out of mere common economic or political
interests of a people residing in a common territory but
that it is a community of spiritual consciousness.

Swami Vivekananda, the great harbinger of our national

For a Virile National Life

127

renaissance in modern times had time and again declared
in unequivocal terms that this is Hindu Nation and placed
before us the great Hindu ideals of a Guru Govind Singh
and a Chhatrapati Shivaji. In fact, he defined our
nation as composed of those whose hearts beat to the same
spiritual tune.

We thus say that our Hindu Nationhood is a truth,
borne out by logic, experience and history. It is the supreme
solid fact of our national life and not any fleeting
4 ism 9 born out of political and economic theories or
exigencies.

Touchstone of Nationality

When we say, “ This is the Hindu Nation ”, there are
some who immediately come up with the question, “What
about the Muslims and the Christians dwelling in this
land? Are they not also born and bred here? How could
they become aliens just because they have changed
their faith?” But the crucial point is whether

they remember that they are the children of this soil.

What is the use of merely our remembering? That feeling,
that memory, should be cherished by them. We are
not so mean as to say that with a change in the method of
worship an individual ceases to be a son of the soil. We
have no objection to God being called by any name
whatever. We, in the Sangh, are Hindus to the core.

That’s why we have respect for all faiths and religious,
beliefs. He cannot be a Hindu at all who is intolerant,
of other faiths. But the question before us now is,

what is the attitude of those people who have been
converted to Islam or Christianity? They are born in this,
land, no doubt. But are they true to its salt? Are they
grateful towards this land which has brought them up?
Do they feel that they are the children of this land and
its tradition, and that to serve it is their great good
fortune? Do they feel it a duty to serve her?
No ! Together with the change in their faith, gone

128

Bunch of Thoughts

are the spirit of love and devotion for the nation.

Nor does it end there. They have also developed a
feeling of identification with the enemies of this land. They
look to some foreign lands as their holy places. They
call themselves ‘Sheikhs’ and ‘Syeds’. Sheikhs and Syeds
are certain clans in Arabia. How then did these people
come to feel that they are their descendants? That is
because they have cut off all their ancestral national
moorings of this land and mentally merged themselves
with the aggressors. They still think that they have come
here only to conquer and establish their kingdoms. So
we see that it is not merely a case of change of faith,
but a change even in national identity. What else is it,
if not treason, to join the camp of the enemy leaving
their mother-nation in the lurch?

An eminent American Professor once asked me a
question: “Muslims and Christians are of this land alone.
Why do you not consider them as one of your own?” In
answer, I put him a counter-question: “Suppose one of
our countrymen goes to America, settles there and wants
to become a citizen of America. But he refuses to accept
your Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson and others as his
national heroes. Do you then call him a national of America?
Tell me frankly.” He said, “No”.

Then I told him, “Why should not the same criterion
be applied to our country also ? How can you say that we
should call such people nationals who, while living here,
work against the honour and traditions of the country,
and insult our national heroes and objects of national
veneration ? ”

Not Nurture But Culture Counts

The mere fact of birth or nurture in a particular
territory, without a corresponding mental pattern, can
never give a person the status of a national in that land.
Mental allegiance has been, in fact, the universally accepted
criterion for nationality.

For a Virile National Life

129

There is an old story with a lesson for us. Once a
lioness roaming in the jungle found a small baby jackal
and brought it to her cave. The lioness had a few cubs.
She began to feed the infant jackal also with her milk

along with her cubs. They all began to grow and play
about as brothers. Once when they had gone into the
thick of the jungle an elephant came that way. The jackal
kid, on seeing that colossal animal, cried out in terror

to his brothers to run away. The lion cubs replied, “What
a fool you are ! After so many days w ? e have come across
such a fine prey. If you are afraid, you go home. We
will fight.” That jackal kid came running to the cave

and narrated to the lioness what a great calamity had

befallen his younger brothers by their refusing to heed
his elderly advice. The lioness just smiled and told that
kid, “No doubt, you have grown here on my milk.
But you cannot help your nature.”

RRTsfir ssHWrsftr 3^ i

( Doubtless , you are brave , adept at learning , handsome to look
at; but the species in which you are born is not the one that
can kill an elephant.)

So also is the case with nations. Mere common
residence in a particular territory cannot forge an unified
national society with common character and qualities.
The newcomers should bring about a total metamorphosis
in their life-attitudes and take a rebirth, as it were, in that
ancient national lineage.

The example of democratic England is instructive.
Over hundred years ago, some Germans settled there
and were given the rights of citizenship. They were
not looked upon as strangers. One of them came to our
country as a servant of England and was employed as an
ICS official in Madhya Pradesh. But when war broke out
in 1914, he was promptly arrested and sent to jail, lest
his attachment to Germany be roused. On this suspicion

130

Bunch of Thoughts

alone he was kept under detention. This is their mature
and correct understading of nationalism.

So too is the case with our nation. Mere common
residence or birth and growth in our land cannot imply
that the same loyalties, qualities and pattern of life exist
amongst all its residents.

Call to Shake off Slavery

So, all that we say is that the Muslims and Christians
here should give up their present foreign mental com-
plexion and merge in the common stream of our national
life.

Everybody knows that only a handful of Muslims came
here as enemies and invaders. So also only a few foreign
Christian missionaries came here. Now the Muslims and
Christians have enormously grown in number. They did
not grow just by multiplication as in the case of fishes.
They converted the local population. We can trace our
ancestry to a common source, from where one portion
was taken away from the Hindu fold and became Muslim
and another became Christian. The rest could not be
converted and they have remained as Hindus. Now,
how did the converts leave their ancestral home? Was it out
of their own sweet will and out of conviction of the
superiority of those faiths? Well, history does not record
a single notable instance of that sort.

On the contrary, history tells us that the reason was
the fear of death or coercion or the various temptations
of power, position etc., and the desire to please the powers
that be by adopting their ways and customs and finally
even taking to their faiths. There was a lot of deception
also. A piece of beef or a loaf used to be thrown into
the water tank of a village and the villagers ignorant of what
had happened, used to take the water as usual. On the next
morning the missionary or the moulvi would come and declare
that since they had used the polluted water they had
all lost their religion and the only way left for them

For a Virile National Life

131

was to join his fold ! In this way whole villages have been
converted to Islam in the North and to Christianity on the
West Coast. This is deception, pure and simple. Thus it
was the mad zeal for increasing one’s numbers for political
domination. It was not propagation of religion, but a
political strategy under the garb of religion. The foreign
invader not only subjugated them politically and culturally
but ultimately converted them to his faith. That too is foreign
domination. There are political, economic and cultural
dominations and this is religious domination.

It is our duty to call these our forlorn brothers,
suffering under religious slavery for centuries, back to their
ancestral home. As honest freedom-loving men, let them
overthrow all signs of slavery and domination and follow
the ancestral ways of devotion and national life. All types
of slavery are repugnant to our nature and should be given
up. This is a call for all those brothers to take their
original place in our national life. And let us all celebrate a
great Diwali on the return of those prodigal sons of our
society. There is no compulsion here. This is only a call
and request to them to understand things properly and
come back and identify themselves with their ancestral
Hindu way of life in dress, customs, performing marriage
ceremonies and funeral rites and such other things.

There are some people who claim that they have
achieved unity of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and all
others on the political and economic plane. But why
limit the oneness only there? Why not make it more
wide and more comprehensive so as to fuse them all in the
Hindu way of life, in our dharma and take them back as
lost brothers? To those who speak of unity on the
political and economic plane, we say that we stand not
only for political and economic unity but also for cultural
and religious unity. We have thrown open our homes, our
sanctuaries and temples, our age-old culture and heritage.
Undoubtedly, this is a broader outlook.

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Bunch of Thoughts

[Revive 4 Parakrama-vad 9

There are many who feel the same in their heart of
hearts. For example. Pandit Jawaharial Nehru has written
a foreword to a Hindi book, Samskriti ke Char Adhydy ,
wherein he has given expression to his innermost feelings
of intense love for the Hindu Culture— which he calls
Bharatiya Culture — and intense desire to see it once again
in all its pristine powers of assimilation. He has said
that there had been two stages in our cultural history.
In the first stage all the foreign races like Hunas and Shakas
who came as invaders finally gave up their original customs
and faiths and began calling themselves Rajputs. They all
got absorbed in our fold gladly, spontaneously. Then we
had the courage, strength and power of assimilation and
absorbed them wholly in the great cultural current of our
national life. We also took up whatever good points there
were in them. Then, he says, the second stage came when
invaders of a virulent character invaded our land and our
people shut themselves up behind rules of ‘do’s and ‘don’t’s,
seeking protection in their social structure. They thus
became narrow-minded, keeping aloof from all and segregated
by themselves. He has said in conclusion that this must
be given up now and the old idea ef assimilation revived once
again.

Unfortunately, he has mentioned only two stages.
There is another painful aspect. Some of those who claimed
to love Hindu Culture, finding it difficult to face the foreign
onslaught, thought that they could protect it by surrendering
themselves at the feet of the invaders and adopted their
manners and customs. This has happened in the past.
Fifty or sixty years ago a vazir of Hyderabad, a Hindu, was
doing namaz five times every day like a most devout Muslim l
This is sharandgati (surrender). If the first stage be called
parakrama-vad (assimilation-ism) and the second, sankuchitatd-vdd
(contraction-ism), then this can be called sharandgati-vad
(surrender-ism). Even today it is going on. Even in
language, 33% of English, 33% of Persian words are introduced

For a Virile National Life

133

in our Army commands. Will such juxtapositions, calcul-
ations and mathematics bring about assimilation and ensure
integrity of the people? This is nothing but appeasement,
surrendering and kneeling down before the invaders.
Because they have been intractable, this skarandgati-vad has
caught the imagination of our people as a way out of the
impasse.

We must revive once again the pardkrama-vdd . For
that, we should make it clear that the non-Hindu who lives
here has a rdshtra dharma (national responsibility), a
samdja dharma (duty to society), a hula dharma (duty to
ancestors), and only in his vyakti dharma (personal faith)
he can choose any path which satisfies his spiritual urge.
If, even after fulfilling all those various duties in social
life, anybody says that he has studied Quran Sherif or the
Bible and that way of worship strikes a sympathetic chord
in his heart, that he can pray better through that path of
devotion, we have absolutely no objection. Thus he has
his choice in a portion of his individual life. For the rest,
he must be one with the national current. That is real
assimilation.

That is how we had conducted ourselves in the past*
We had always been hospitable. Any one was welcome
to stay here. But all of them were required to act up to
our national codes and conventions. Several centuries
ago, when barbaric hordes of Arabs and Turks invaded
Persia, some Parsis left their motherland and sailed forth
with their Holy Fire and Holy Book and landed at Surat.
King Yadava Rana welcomed them with open arms and
consulted the Shankaracharya of Dwaraka Math as to how to
accept them. They were asked to give up beef-eating, respect
mother-cow as an object of national faith and live here in
peace. These followers of Zaratushtra have kept up their
promise even to this day. They live here with their religion
intact, but have merged themselves wholly in the mainstream
of national life.

Once Pandit Nehru had remarked at Jabalpur that

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Bunch of Thoughts

there was no reason why we should not be able to absorb
the Muslims even as we had assimilated in hisotorical
times the Hunas and the Shakas. Indisputably, this is
the correct and the only way of integrating our national
life.

This is our concept of Hindu Nation and our attitude
towards the non-Hindus residing here — the only rational,
practical and right approach.

In spite of this rational and positive approach, there
are some who imagine that the concept of Hindu nation is
a challenge to the very existence of the Muslim and the
Christian co-citizens and they will be thrown out and
exterminated. Nothing could be more absurd or detri-
mental to our national sentiment. It is an insult to our
great and all-embracing cultural heritage. Do we not
know, for example, that even in the latest powerful expression
of Hindu resurgence under Shivaji, one of his army officers
was a Ranadulla Khan? Later on, on the battlefield of
Panipat in 1761, in that life and death struggle for the
rising Hindu Swaraj, the key position of the Artillery Chief
was held by one Ibrahim Gaidi. With such historical
evidence and national traditions for the past thousands of
years staring before our eyes, how strange that some persons
still say that the non-Hindus live in peril if the Hindu Nation
comes into its own !

The Bedrock of National Integration

Today we often hear our political leaders speaking of
National integration’, ‘emotional integration’ and so on.
But what is that ‘ common emotion ’, that common basis on
which all can come together? What are those eternal
life-springs of our national life that go to make it unified,
resurgent and glorious?

In the first place, the feeling of burning devotion to the
land, which from times immemorial we have regarded as our
sacred Matrubhoomi ,

— in the second place, the feeling of fellowship, of

For a Virile National Life

135

fraternity, born out of the realisation that we are the children
of that one great common Mother,

—in the third place, the intense awareness of a common
current of national life, born out of a common culture and
heritage, of common history and traditions, of common
ideals and aspirations,

—this trinity of values or, in a word, Hindu Nationalism,
forms the bedrock of our national edifice.

X

Territorial Nationalism

/. its toe Is

Why the word ‘ Rashtriya’ — The British game — Effects of
English education — History distorted — Birth ofTerrtorial
nationalism * — Its absurdi t) ’•

M UCH thought was devoted to the subject before the
name ‘Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’ was decided
upon for our organisation. A number of persons close
to the Sangh were also consulted. Naturally, many
suggestions were put forth, and objections were raised
against each name. Even the present name was confronted
with the objection that if the word ‘Rashtriya’ was
adopted then its doors should have to be kept open to all
other people in the country, i.e., Muslims, Christians etc.
So the name ‘Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh’ was suggested
as the organisation was restricted only to the Hindus.

Why ‘Rashtriya’ and not ‘Hindu’

Then why was the v/ord ‘Rashtriya’ finally adopted in
preference to the word ‘Hindu 5 ?

There is an instance which correctly denotes the
underlying viewpoint. In Bombay there is a locality known
as ‘Hindu Colony’. Some persons of that place thought

136

Territorial Nationalism — I

137

that the foreign word ‘colony’ should be changed. They
came together to change the name. Our revered founder,
who was in Bombay at that time, was also invited.
When he was asked for his opinion, he said, “ More than
the word ‘ colony ’ it is the word ‘ Hindu ’ that requires to
be changed first. ” All those who had gathered, being
very staunch Hindus, felt shocked. They asked, “ How is
it you, being a staunch Hindu, are opposed to the word
‘Hindu’?” Doctorji replied, “I am not opposed to the
word ‘ Hindu 5 as such. I am only opposed to its use in
the present context which denotes that in our own country
the Hindus have formed a colony ! How can there be a
colony of Hindus in Hindusthan? If some Englishmen
come, stay in a particular locality in Hindusthan and call
it a ‘ British Colony ’ it can be understood. So also it is, if
you go to England, live in a particular locality and call
it a ‘Hindu Colony’. But a ‘British Colony’ in England,,
an ‘American Colony’ in the United States and a ‘Hindu
Colony’ in our land Hindusthan are all absurd. Either
you accept that this is not your motherland and that you
have come from somewhere outside and formed a colony
here, or you change the name ‘Hindu’/’ But they could
not realise that there w 7 as something incongruous and absurd
in having a ‘Hindu Colony’ in our own country. So the-
name continues even now.

From this we can realise why the word ‘Rashtriya*
and not ‘Hindu’ was given to our organisation. Doctorji
used to say that in our land the word ‘ Rashtriya ’ natu-
rally means ‘Hindu’ and therefore the word ‘Hindu’ need
not be used. He would say, “ If we use the word ‘ Hindu
it will only mean that we consider ourselves only as one
of the innumerable communities in this land and that we
do not realise our natural status as the nationals of this,
country.” But, it is a fact that there is in our country
quite an amount of misunderstanding about what ‘nation”
is, to which the Bombay incident is only a pointer.

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Bunch of Thoughts

The British Game

How did this misunderstanding creep in? During the
last one thousand years, there had been many foreign
aggressions on our land. The invaders like the Greeks,
Hunas and the Shakas who came previously were either
•defeated and driven out or, if some of them stayed over,
were absorbed in the Hindu Society. But the invaders
who came during the last ten or twelve centuries could
not be driven out. They could not be absorbed either.
They remained a separate entity and ruled as foreigners
in this land. 1 The last rulers, the British, were ruling from
-several thousand miles away. Being shrewd, they knew
that perpetuation of their far-flung empire was possible
•only by knocking out from the minds of our people the
faith which gave them inspiration and strength to fight
for freedom. What was that faith ?

The British found that the average man here adores
his motherland. The people here were blended together
as an organic whole, though for the time being their unity
was disrupted. A supreme sense of self-respect, love of
freedom and devotion to their culture and traditions were
ingrained in their blood. Knowing that such an indo-
mitable spirit of nationalism would spell disaster to their
empire, they planned systematically to undermine the faith
of the people in their motherland, in their dharma and in
their heritage.

There is an incident narrated by Lala Hardayal, one
of our great revolutionaries. In the South, there was an
English officer. His assistant was a local person, probably
.a Naidu. The orderly of that Englishman was a Brahmin.
One day, when this Englishman was walking in a street,
followed by his orderly, the assistant came from the
opposite side. The two officers greeted each other and
shook hands. But when the assistant officer saw the
orderly, he took off his turban and touched his feet. The
Englishman was amazed. He queried, “I am your senior
officer, but you stand erect and just shake hands with me,

T ERRITORI AL N ATIONALISM — I

139

whereas he is only my peon and you prostrate before him
on this busy road. What is the matter ?” The assistant
officer replied, “You may be my officer, but you are a
mlechha. He may be a peon, but he belongs to that class
of my people which is held in great respect all down the
centuries, before whom it is my duty to bow down.”
Letters are available, written by that Englishman to the
India Office in England, relating all this and saying that
unless the Englishman ousted the Brahmin from that
position and occupied it himself, i.e., became as respectable
or even more, his empire could not last long.

With that end in view, the Englishman began training
us systematically in various ways. The first thing he taught
was that this was one great 4 continent ’ and not a country.
He said that we are not one people and one nation. There
were some aboriginals here staying for ages who had been
driven away into the forests and hills. There were also
other types of aboriginals called the Dravidas. Aryans
came from the North and with their superior strength of
arms conquered this land and dominated over the rest.
That is, we were told we had no motherland, that most
of us had come from somewhere outside and therefore
were equally strangers and foreigners to this country.
We were also told we had no dharma, no philosophy,
no morals worth the name, that all our past life was just
one of unrelieved darkness, that the coming of the English
here was ‘divine dispensation’, for w 7 e could learn sitting
at their feet the first lessons in culture, religion and
orderly social and political life.

The imperialist designs of Macaulay, the brain behind
the system of English education, were trumpeted aloudt
“We must at present do our best to form a class who may
be interpreters between us and the millions whom we
govern— a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but
English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.”
And again, in 1836, he wrote to his father, “No Hindu
who has received an English education ever remains

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Bunch of Thoughts

sincerely attached to his religion .... If our plans of
education are followed up there will not be a single idolater
among the respectable classes in Bengal 30 years hence.”
Even to this day, the same insidious indoctrination of
young minds is carried on in the Christian convents here—
that there is no real Saviour other than Jesus Christ, that
the Hindu religion is only a mass of superstitions, that
without taking to Christianity they would all be doomed
to eternal damnation and so on.

History Distorted

There used to be a book of history for schoolboys,
wherein the history of all our ancient emperors and kings
was summed up under the title ‘ Tanglewood Tales ’ i.e.,
a period of all confusion and darkness. And then, in that
confusion and darkness, says that ‘historian’, the
Aryans came, first settled down in Punjab where the
battle of Mahabharata took place. Then they proceeded
towards the Ganga and Yamuna and settled down in
Ayodhya. So he had concluded that several centuries after
the story of Mahabharata came the story of Ramayana !
I appreciated that ‘historian’s’ ingenuity ! Indeed it
requires an uncommmon genius to discover that the father
was born after the son ! The entire history of our country
thus comprised of the ‘dark ages’ at the start and the
later portion was divided into the Muslim Period and the
British Period. All these things were being taught right
from our childhood and no wonder many of our people
believed that we had no national life and nothing great
whatsoever.

Even after the Britishers have left, in our school text-
books, our history has been divided into Hindu Period,
Muslim Period and British Period implying the same old
poisonous theory of the Britisher that Hindus in this land
stand on the same footing as the Muslim and the British.
The fact that the history of Bharat is one long Hindu
Period, sometimes in a free and glorious condition and

Territorial Nationalism — I

141

sometimes struggling with rhe foreign invaders in the
cause of national freedom and honour, and that periods
in history are known after the nationals and not after
foreign usurpers and dictators masquerading as kings, is
not recognised even today.

C A Nation in the Making’

It was no wonder that the so-called educated Hindu
fell a prey to the trap laid by the Britisher. He began
to dress and speak like an Englishman. He began to feel
ashamed of his ancestors and his past heritage. Some
time back a startling instance of those days had appeared
in Dharma Yuga a prominent Hindi weekly. Three gentle-
men— an Irishman, a Scotchman and a prominent Hindu
leader once stayed in a hotel in Europe. In the visitors’'
book, while referring to their nationalities, the first wrote,

4 ‘I am proud to be born in Ireland” and the second person,
expressed his good fortune to be bom as a Scotchman and
the third, the Hindu, wrote, “I consider it a result of my
past sins that I am born in a Hindu Brahmin family ! ”

In such an atmosphere it was natural that the English-
educated believed that all the centuries of our past life
having been one of ignorance and internecine quarrels,
they were to start afresh as a nation. In the early days
of our so-called freedom struggle against the Britisher,
we find in the speeches of many top-ranking leaders the
expression “we are a nation in the making” which means*
we are not yet formed into a nation. Even today many
leaders say that we are in a melting pot, that we are
yet to give a new shape and content to our national
life, and so on.

Another theory which caught their imagination was
that since all those residing in this land were under the
common danger of a foreign rule, that common danger
resulted in forging them all into a new nationality. It is
well known that a common danger can build up a.
nationality which already exists at least in a seed form

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Bunch of Thoughts

But cannot create it de novo. It can only rouse and
strengthen a nation but cannot create an entirely new
one. It infuses into the nation a spirit of unity and
sacrifice born out of the will to resist and defy the foreign
aggressors. That is all what the theory of common
danger implies. And here it was sought to be applied
to achieve a new nationality altogether.

Absurdity of * Territorial Concept’

They forgot that here was already a full-fledged ancient
nation of the Hindus and the various communities which
were living in the country were here either as guests,
the Jews and Parsis, or as invaders, the Muslims and
Christians. They never faced the question how all such
heterogeneous groups could be called as children of the
soil merely because, by an accident, they happened to
reside in a common territory under the rule of a common
enemy.

During one of our meetings in those days, a gentle-
man emphatically stated that whoever resided in this
country must be considered as our national. I asked
him, “Residing for how long?” He said, “There is
no time-limit for that.” “Even for a day?” I asked.
He replied, “Yes”. Thereupon I remarked, “Then
rejoice ! We have won swardj. We have won an empire !
There is no need any more for all the trials and
tribulations of freedom struggle. For, according to
your definition the present Prime Minister of England,
Ramsay MacDonald, is a national of our land, as he
was here for quite a few days. So it means that it
is we who are ruling over England and not vice
versa !” Such is the extent of absurd and perverse
conclusions to which the £ serai theory’ of territorial
nationalism leads us.

The theories of territorial nationalism and of common
danger, which formed the basis for our concept of nation,
had deprived us of the positive and inspiring content of

Territorial Nationalism — I

143

our real Hindu Nationhood and made many of the
‘freedom movements’ virtually anti-British movements.
Anti-Britishism was equated with patriotism and nationalism.
This reactionary view has had disastrous effects upon the
entire course of the freedom struggle, its leaders and.
the common people.

X

Territorial Nationalism
- 2 . lIa itud*

Revolutionaries turned traitors — Congress turned re-
actionary — Nature of non-Hindu communities — Muslim
appeasement — Hindus exhorted for self-annihilation —
Leadership , a tragic curse — Malady continuing -Correct
initial blunder.

I N main, two types of movements rose up against the
British rule in our country. One was the armed
revolution resorted to by the revolutionaries and the other,
passive resistance led by the Indian National Congress. Let
us consider the effects of ‘anti-Britishism’ on the two
separately.

Patriots Turned Traitors

The revolutionary leaders had forged a wide network
of secret cells, arsenals and a band of fiery patriotic heroes
ready to sacrifice their lives. But some traitor here and
there used to betray their secrets and their best guarded
and calculated plans would come to grief. When a person
strives time and again but does not succeed, he looks
around to see if there is anybody who, following the same
method, has been successful. This being the human

144

Territorial Nationalism — II

145

tendency, the revolutionaries wanted an example of some
successful revolution to emulate.

Among them, those who had the positive grasp of our
national life looked for such a revolutionary inspiration
within the country, within our own history, just as a Savarkar
and a Subhash Chandra Bose were inspired by the ideal
of Shivaji. Subhash Chandra Bose, in one of his last
interviews before he disappeared from our country, had
spoken highly about the greatness of Shivaji and had even
declared that by following the ideals and methods of Shivaji
alone could we achieve swardj.

But those who had not that grasp, that positive abiding
conviction of our nationhood, but were goaded only by
intense antagonism to the British rule, looked everywhere
except into their own past. They found that there was a
successful revolution in Russia in 1917, which had
overthrown the old Czarship and the feudal system, and had
established 4 people’s regime’, as it was called. Many
of our revolutionaries were so much enamoured of it that
they sought to bring about a revolution based solely on
Communist ideology and Communist methods. The result
was that those who started as devotees of our freedom
have now turned into devotees of Communism and of the
Russian and Chinese leadership. They are now fighting
to ‘liberate’ our country from ourselves and enslave it to
Russia or China. We therefore see that those who were
willing to lay down their lives for the freedom of our
motherland are now equally willing to lay down their lives
for making our motherland a satellite of Russia or China.
Those who were once swadeshabhaktas of the intense burning
type have now become equally intense paradeshabhaktas. What
a degradation !

The Congress Debacle

The other movement led by the Congress has had
more disastrous and degrading effects on the country.
Most of the tragedies and evils that have overtaken our

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Bunch of Thoughts

country during the last few decades and are even today
corroding our national life are its direct outcome.

The Congress leaders, when faced with the might of
the British empire, felt that their strength was too little.
To make up for their weakness they began to look around
if some other countries would come to their aid. The
revolutionaries too had tried that method. But foreign
powers do not rush to the help of weaker people unless
there is a chance of their own self-interest being fulfilled.
Some of the top-ranking leaders of Congress approached
Amir Amanullah of Afghanistan for help. The plan was
that the Amir should invade our country synchronising with
our uprising from within and help us to drive out the
British. As a recompense for his help he was promised
that in the place of the British he would be accepted as
our Suzerain ! But the British, shrewd as they were, came
to know of the plot, put these leaders in detention and
contrived by their skilful diplomacy to overthrow the
supremacy of Amanullah in Afghanistan itself!

When this attempt failed, the Congress leaders thought
that at least a united front of all those who lived here should
be forged against the British. That was also in line with
their notion of nationalism. Apart from the Hindu People,
there were four communities living here— the Jew, the Parsi,
the Christian and the Muslim.

There was no difficulty about the Hindus. They
naturally love this country as their sacred motherland.
Since hoary times they have built up a great culture and
heritage here. They have given rise to great men of
thought and action in all walks of life and in all parts of
the country. Therefore the whole land, from the Himalayas
to Kanyakumari, is sacred to them. They want this land
to be free from foreign domination. Even their scriptures
command them to aspire for freedom. The spirit of
freedom is ingrained in their very blood. And as a
result, they had never taken foreign domination for
granted even in the past and were striking at its shackles

Territorial Nationalism— II

147

time and again with varying degrees of success.

Jews, Parsis, Christians

Then there were the Jews and Parsis who had come
here as refugees. The Jews were ignored as they were
very few. The Parsis, though small in number, were an
intelligent, industrious and prosperous community. But
to a large extent, they had merged in the mainstream
of the Hindu life here. They had developed intense love
for our motherland and were in the forefront of our
freedom struggle. Dadabhai Naoroji, Pnerozshah Mehta
and Madame Cama became symbols of inspiration for
all freedom fighters.

Then came the question of the Christian gentlemen
here. During the War of Independence in 1857, some
bishops here had raised platoons to help the British
Government in suppressing the uprising. Since then, they
were always on the side of the British who, after all,
belonged to their own faith. The British too were helping
the Christian missionary activities in various ways. Vast
jungle and hill areas were specially chosen, as for example
the Chhota Nagpur area and the Naga territory, where
only the Christian missionaries were sent and their borders
sealed to all other religious preachers. There was a natural
co-ordination between the local Christians, the Christian
Missions and the British Government. So, in general,
the Christians kept themselves aloof from the freedom
struggle.

The Leadership on Trial

Then came the question of Muslims. They had come
here as invaders. They were conceiving themselves as
conquerors and rulers here for the last twelve hundred
years. That complex was still in their mind. History has
recorded that their antagonism was not merely political.
Had it been so, they could have been won over in a very
short time. But it was so deep-rooted that whatever

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Bunch of Thoughts

we believed in, the Muslim was wholly hostile to it. If we
worship in the temple, he would desecrate it. If we carry
on bhajans and car festivals, that would irritate him. If we
worship cow, he would like to eat it. If we glorify woman
as a symbol of sacred motherhood, he would like to molest
her. He was tooth and nail opposed to our way of life in all
aspects— religious, cultural, social etc. Ke had imbibed that
hostility to the very core. His number also was not small.
Next to the Hindu's his was the largest.

Our leaders were therefore faced with the problem of
weaning those people away from their hostile mood and
bringing them to the patriotic ranks. There was a very
rational and patriotic way of approach. That was to tell
them frankly: “Dear friends, the days of old Moghul
Badshahi nave passed. Now both of us will have to live
ultimately as brothers here, as co-sharers in this national
life. After all, you also belong to the same race as ours,
to the same blood as ours, but converted to Islam at the
point of sword by those Moghul, Turk and other foreign
races. Now, there is no point in your continuing to associate
yourself mentally with those foreign aggressors and
trying to follow their footsteps. Forget all such separatist
memories, merge yourself in the life of this soil. Hereafter
try to respect and follow the examples of the great
sons of this land who fought for the freedom and honour
of our motherland and our culture." Then matters would
have been very simple. Such instances have happened
all over the world. For instance, the Normans entered
England as aggressors. The local people stood up against
them to defend their freedom. But later, both of them
merged together and faced all future aggressions as one
united people. And they have continued to live a unified
life even today.

Sowing Seeds of Self-Destruction

But, to tell the pugnacious fighting Mussalman that his
forefathers were Hindus, that he should return to the Hindu

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149

fold as a self-respecting man, that he should give up his
aggressive mode of the Moghul days, and wake up to the
realities of the present century and merge in the national
current of life — to tell all this required an unshakable
conviction in the supremacy of truth and indomitable courage
to face the hard realities of the situation. But, unfortunately,
both these qualities, uncompromising love for truth and
fearlessness, are really wanting in many of the leading
personalities of these days.

There is before us that famous instance of Maulana
Mohammed All, known as the ‘right hand’ of Mahatma
Gandhi and a devout Muslim. He was the President-
elect at the Kakinada session of Congress in 1923. The
renowned songster-patriot Pandit Vishnu Digambar
Paluskar had come there to sing the national anthem
Vande Mataram . Just as the session was about to
commence, when he came forward to sing Vande Mataram ,
Maulana Saheb stopped him saying “No, you cannot sing
that national anthem. It revolts against the spirit of
our religion.” But the stout-hearted Paluskar refused
to be cowed down, saying that he had come expressly for
that purpose and he would discharge his duty. In anger
Maulana Saheb left the place and stayed away when the
national anthem was being sung! There was not a single
courageous soul among the whole crowd of leaders
assembled there that had the guts to tell him, “ Janab,
this is our national anthem. Being the President of the
National Congress, you should not object to its singing.
You should not allow other considerations to come in the
way of patriotism.” On the contrary, portions of Vande
Mataram were thereafter dropped out to appease Muslim
fanaticism.

Thus, due to the utter lack of will and conviction on
the part of our leaders to face the Muslim intransigence
squarely from the standpoint of undiluted nationalism,
were sown the seeds of appeasement of Muslims. In their
phantom chase of achieving new unity and new nationality >

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Bunch of Thoughts

our leaders raised the slogan of ‘ Hindu-Muslim unity >
and declared that anything that stood in its way should
be forgotten. As they dared not tell the Muslim to forget
his separatism, they pitched upon the docile Hindu for
all their preachings. The first thing they preached was,
that our nationality could not be called Hindu, that even
our land could not be called by its traditional name
Hindusthan, as that would have offended the Muslim.
The name 6 India’ given by the British was accepted.
Taking that name, the ‘new nation’ was called the ‘Indian
Nation’. And the Hindu was asked to rename himself as
* Indian

Hindu — the Sacrificial Goat

The exhortation of the leaders did not stop at that.
The Hindu was asked to ignore, even submit meekly
to the vandalism and atrocities of the Muslims. In effect,
he was told: “Forget all that the Muslims have done in
the past and all that they are now doing to you. If your
worshipping in the temple, your taking out gods in procession
in the streets irritates the Muslims, then don’t do it.
If they carry away your wives and daughters, let them.
Do not obstruct them. That would be violence ! ” To
cite an instance, in those days a Hindu girl was abducted
by a Muslim in NWFP and the problem was posed before
the Central Assembly where our prominent leaders were
present. A Muslim Congress leader lightly brushed aside
the incident saying “ After all boys are boys and girls are girls.”
At that insulting remark not one of the Hindu leaders present
there raised a voice of protest. None dared to ask why,
if it was just a case of boys and girls, it always happened that
the Muslim boys kidnapped only Hindu girls and not
Muslim girls? On the other hand, they enjoyed the remark
as a piece of humour !

Whenever the Muslims slaughtered cows to insult
Hindu feelings, the Hindus were told that it was the
religious right of Muslims and that, being tolerant to other

Territorial Nationalism— II

151

religions, they should not object to it. Although there is
not a word of sanction in Quran for cow-slaughter. Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru had given the Muslims a written assurance
that on the advent of swardj cow-slaughter would not be
banned keeping in view their ‘religious sentiments’.

Once a notable Hindu personality of those days, in a
largely attended public meeting, declared: “There is no
swardj without Hindu-Muslim unity and the simplest way
in which this unity can be achieved is for all Hindus to
become Muslims ! ” He did not even realise that then it
would not be Hindu-Muslim unity but only Muslim unity
as there would be no Hindu left at all !

To this extent, self-forgetfulness was taught to the
Hindus. They were taught to forget their glorious history,
to forget Rana Pratap. Shivaji, Gum Govind Singh and
all such inspiring names and if at all their memory
did intrude, to call them ‘misguided patriots. ’ In fact,
history was ‘invented’ to suit their slogan of Hindu-
Muslim unity. To give an example of one such invention,
a well-known scholar of our country has written that
there is hardly an instance on record to show that Hindus
were forcibly made to embrace Islam ! Is this invention
not something ‘super-Einsteinian’ in its originality ? And
all this was supposed to be for the achievement of ‘Hindu-
Muslim unity’ and therefore swardj ! The credulous and
freedom-loving Hindu believed in all that and prepared

himself to sacrifice his Hindu-hood, all his age-old ideals,
heritage and aspirations, as he was told by his leaders
that without doing this Hindu-Muslim unity was not
possible and without Hindu-Muslim unity swardj could not
be achieved ! One prominent leader had gone to the

extent of saying that he would even not accept swardj

without Hindu-Muslim unity !

In other words, the Hindu was told that he was

imbecile, that he had no spirit, no stamina to stand on his
own legs and fight for the independence of his motherland
and that all this had to be injected into him in the form of

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Bunch of Thoughts

Muslim blood. What a shame, what a misfortune that our
own leaders should have come forward to knock out the
ancient and indomitable faith in ourselves and destroy our
spirit of self-confidence and self-reliance, which is the very
life-breath of a people ! Those who declared ‘No swardj
without Hindu-Muslim unity’ have thus perpetrated the
greatest treason on our society. They have committed the
most heinous sin of killing the life-spirit of a great and
ancient people. To preach impotency to a society which
gave rise to a Shivaji who, in the words of the great
historian Jadunath Sarkar, ‘proved to the whole world
that the Hindu has drunk the elixir of immortality’, and
to break the self-confident and proud spirit of such a great
and virile society has no parallel in the history of the world
for sheer magnitude of its betrayal.

The Bitter Fruit

The direct result was that Hindus were defeated at
the hands of Muslims in 1947. And who were these
Muslims? The overwhelming majority of them were those
who were converted to Islam at the point of sword or by
temptations of power and pelf. That is, they were the
progeny of that section of our society which had not the
mental stamina or the self-respect to stand up in defence
of their sivadesh and swadharma but preferred to join the
enemy camp to save their skin. And w ? e, the children of
heroic ancestors of peerless valour who for centuries braved
and stamped out waves after waves of the invading hordes
of Muslims, accepted defeat at the hands of such a
people !

And what a disgraceful defeat at that ! During the last
one thousand years of our struggle with those aggressors
never had we accepted their sovereign rights over any
part of this land. Even when they held sway over
vast portions of our country as in the times of an Akbar
or an Aurangazeb not a day passed without a Rana Pratap,
a Guru Govind Singh, a Chhatrasal or a Shivaji

Territorial Nationalism— II ..

153

challenging them and asserting our national freedom. The
same inspiring tradition of freedom struggle continued
unabated during the rule of the Britishers also. However,
for the first time in 1947, we gave up the fight, put an ignoble
end to the glorious one-thousand-year-long struggle for
national freedom, surrendered all our rights and acquiesced
in an unchallenged domination of the aggressor over huge
portions of our land.

That was the bitter fruit of the continuous draining
out of the spirit of self-confidence from the Hindus by the
suicidal slogan of ‘no sivaraj without Hindu-Muslim unity t
indulged in by our leaders.

Nemesis Overtakes

No other people in the world have so far been so
singularly unfortunate as we Hindus in this regard. The
leaders of various peoples have always striven their utmost
to infuse self-confidence, to rekindle the drooping spirit
of their people and to make them virile and conquering
in the face of enemies. But here, we had leaders who were,
as if, pledged to sap all manliness from their own people.
However, this is not a mere accident of history. This
leadership only came as a bitter climax of the despicable
tribe of so many of our ancestors who during the past
twelve hundred years sold their national honour and freedom
to foreigners, and joined hands with the inveterate enemies
of our country and our religion in cutting the throats
of their own kith and kin to gratify their personal egoism,
selfishness and rivalry. No wonder nemesis overtook
such a people in the form of such a self-destructive
leadership.

Appeasement Whets Appetite

Well, did these leaders succeed, though at such a
terrible cost, in realising their dream of Hindu-Muslim
unity? No! The more our leaders tried to appease the
Muslims, the more their separatist and aggressive appetite
7

154

Bunch of Thoughts

was whetted. The British too set about to sharpen their
separatist teeth and claws in a bid to set them against
the nationalist forces. Thus the Muslims were placed in a
position in which they were wanted by both the British
and the nationalists and their price was rising higher and
higher.

In 1887, Surendranath Banerjee wrote in his diary
that in order that Congress may not appear to be purely a
Hindu body they tried their best to bring in Muslims and
even offered fares and other facilities to them to attend the
Congress sessions and that in spite of all these, very few
Muslims came.

During the freedom struggle, once Pandit Nehru had
undertaken in his home province a big campaign of c Muslim
mass contact’ to win them over to our side. But the result
was that Muslim League began to grow there in leaps and
bounds and that very province, i.e., U. P., became the
spearhead of disruptionist Muslim movement.

Even as early as 1917, Congress had, in the Lucknow
Pact, acceded to separate electorates for Muslims. Later,
the Communal Award of 1931 allotted 33^ per cent seats
for Muslims in the Central Legislature, though they formed
only 24 per cent of the total population. In addition,
Muslims were given ‘statutory’ majority in Punjab and
Bengal, where the Muslim population figures were boosted
in the Census to appear as more than those of the Hindus.
And again, the number of seats reserved for Muslims was
far in excess of even those boosted population figures. In
the other provinces where Muslims were in a minority
they were awarded weightage. By that they got far greater
representation than what their population warranted.
Still their demands went on mounting. In 1946, when
the Central Interim Ministry was formed, the Muslims
were given ‘parity’ with the ‘caste Hindus’ thus driving
a wedge among the Hindus. Finally their price rose to
such a pitch that they not only got two big slices of this
land where they live today as complete masters with

Territorial N ationalism — II

155

plans to conquer the rest of our country, but also continue
to remain here in sufficient numbers to act as potential
fifth -column.

The Blasted Slogan

The partition of our country simultaneously with the
quitting of the British and the advent of swaraj as claimed
by our leaders, gave the lie direct to the slogan ‘No swaraj
without Hindu-Muslim unity’. In fact, the relations
between the Hindus and Muslims were never so bitter and
estranged as in those years of 1946 and 1947. Millions of
families were uprooted from their ancestral homes; province
after province turned crimson by the flow of rivers of
blood; and death, destruction and disgrace scarred the
faces of crores of innocent human beings. Even the
normal social intercourse which had existed between the
two for ages was shattered during that period. It was
precisely at that hour the British quit this land. In
what words shall we describe ‘the farsightedness and
statesmanship’ of those leaders who had proclaimed
‘ No swaraj without Hindu-Muslim unity ’ !

The Corrective

Even to this day, after the British have quit the land,
we are witnessing the disastrous effects of the reactionary
and perverted concept of nationalism. It is a matter of
common experience that even a slight aberration at the
start in taking a particular course leads one in course of
time to an altogether different destination. Further, if
once a man commits a mistake, he tends to persist in it.
Any advice from others to give up the mistaken course
only irritates him and makes him stick to it all the more
obstinately. To err is human but to persist in proved and
established error is un-human. It is the characteristic of
an animal and not of a human being. The quality of a
rational human being is to acknowledge one’s mistake and
correct it with all humility with the firm resolve never to

156

Bunch of Thoughts

repeat the mistake. But unfortunately, our leaders are
not prepared to revise and correct their territorial concept
of nationalism which has led to the unprecedented tragedy
of partition of our motherland, with all its continuing and
growing dangers, and the uprooting of over two crores of
our brethren, resulting in their indescribable miseries
of desolation, distress and dishonour.

This is the price we have paid and are even now
paying for the wrong and unnatural concept of nation that
we have adopted. Nor could anything better have been
expected to flow out of that. The concept of territorial
nationalism has verily emasculated our nation and what
more can we expect of a body deprived of its vital energy?

Once in the zoology section of a college the students
planned to crack a joke with their old professor. They
removed the legs of a water-bug and joined the legs of
another species to it. They brought it to their professor
and asked him in a puzzled tone, “Sir, we could not make
out what this is. What new type of bug is it?” The eld
professor examined it under a microscope and remarked
gravely, “How is it, boys, you do not know such a simple
common bug as this ? The name of this bug is ‘humbug’ !”

It was this ‘humbug’ type of nationalism that was
attempted to be vivified. It is like attempting to create a
novel animal by joining the head of a monkey and
the legs of a bullock to the trunk of an elephant ! It can
only result in a [hideous corpse. It cannot be a living
body. If at all some activity is seen in that body it is
only of the germs and bacteria breeding in that decomposing
corpse. And so it is that we see today the germs of
corruption, disintegration and dissipation eating into the
vitals of our nation for having given up the natural
living nationalism in the pursuit of an unnatural,
unscientific and lifeless hybrid-concept of territorial
nationalism.

Therefore, if we are to rise again as a nation, we
must correct the initial blunder which we committed in

Territorial Nationalism — II

157

accepting a newfangled idea of nationalism, which experience
has proved to be absolutely false and ruinous. Let us
not be deluded into a wrong track by the wily propaganda
of interested persons. We have been sufficiently fooled
uptill now by their exhortation that we Hindus, who
are having a great philosophy of human brotherhood,
catholicity of spirit and so on, should not narrow
ourselves by the talk of Hindu Nationalism and all such
‘communal’, ‘medieval’ and ‘reactionary’ ideas! We must
be able to see through the game and revert to the truth
of our nationalism as an ancient fact and the Hindus
being the national society of Bharat, as so clearly restated
by our revered founder when he decided the word ‘Rashtriya’
for our organisation. We must once again stand up
in our true and full stature and boldly assert that we
shall elevate the Hindu National Life in Bharat to the
peak of glory and honour which has been its birthright
since hoary times.

XI Call for Courage of Conviction

* Secularists ’ and Hindu Nationalism — Fear complex ,
root of * Hindu- Muslim bhai-bhai’ — Story with a
moral — Ingrained conviction of Hindu Nationalism —
Even truth requires ‘proof’.

W E are witnessing a strange phenomenon in our country
today. The real and positive concept of Hindu
Nationalism is being dubbed as communal, reactionary,
narrow-minded and so on and the unscientific, reactionary
and harmful theory of territorial nationalism, upheld by
our present-day leaders, is paraded as ‘secular’, ‘progressive’
and ‘broad-minded’. But, apart from this cloud of
political dust that has been raised, is it true that in their
heart of hearts the so-called ‘ secularists ’ differ fundamentally
from us?

At Heart All Accept, But . . . !

Today very eminent personalities of our country extol
the greatness of what they call ‘ Indian ’ philosophy, ‘ Indian ’
art, etc. They say, ‘The highest flights of Indian philosophy
are to be found in the Upanishads’, ‘Kalidasa is the best
gem of Indian literature’ and so on. They declare that the
unique contribution of ‘Indian’ thought to mankind is its
genius to see unity in diversity and its spirit of respect
towards all faiths and religions on the face of the earth.

158

Call for Courage of Conviction

159

But, what do all these statements really convey ? Is
there anything ‘Indian’ other than what is ‘Hindu’ in
all this?

Once a prominent leader suggested to us, “Of course,
we have no objection to what you propound regarding
the Hindu Nation and all that. But why not rut the
same diplomatically as ‘Bharatiya’ instead of ‘Hindu’, as
the latter appears offensive these days?” And he also
quoted the famous Sanskrit axiom, na brooyat satyama -
priyam (one should not utter unpleasant truth;. What a
fine way of circumventing truth ! In fact, the correct
meaning of that phrase is otherwise. It is not that the
unpleasant truth should be suppressed; it would only
amount to supporting falsehood. Truth must be told but
in a sweet manner. The truth is, that the thought for
which we stand is correctly and unambiguously described
by the word ‘Hindu’. Though ‘Bharatiya’ also should
connote the same meaning, the way in which it is used
by our leaders today lands one in confusion and leads
one away from the truth. So, we decide not to dilute
the truth to please or appease anybody. We do not also
stoop to offensive language while propagating this truth.
We take our stand on the pure and positive content
of our national life and view all our national problems
in that clear light.

This truth of Hindu Nationalism has been imprinted
on all minds, though some may not say it in so many
words. Take the instance of Somnath. When the temple
of Somnath was renovated and there was the consecration
ceremony, many great leaders and scholars of our country
had gone there, including our former President Dr. Rajendra
Prasad of revered memory. What was the upshot of
his speech on that occasion? He said that by rebuilding
Somnath, we were wiping out the stains of twelve hundred
years of slavery. What a revealing sentence ! When he
said, ‘twelve hundred years of slavery’, who were those
enslavers that he had in mind ? Who had broken the

160

Bunch of Thoughts

temple of Somnath? Clearly, the Muslims. To whom
was it a point of honour and devotion? The answer
is very clear— to the Hindus. It is one of their Jyotirlingas.
The devastation of that temple was an insult to the
majesty of the Hindu People and by rebuilding it, we
have re-established that majesty and wiped out the stains
of foreign aggression, i. e., the aggression of the Muslims.
In that one sentence, he has unequivocally stated that
the Hindu has been the resident of this country from
times immemorial, that his is the national existence here
and that it is only by the restoration of the objects of
his worship that the stains of all foreign aggression
in the country will be wiped out.

So, we see that even those who talk of ‘broad-minded’
outlook have the same belief as we have— though they
do not express ii straightaway. They take a roundabout
way, but in the end, come to the same conclusion about
the solid fact of Hindu Rashtra and about the real
nature of the non -Hindu communities living in our
country, especially the Muslims, who are uppermost in
their minds.

Once a leading Congress worker said to me, “You
see, we cannot go on saying that this is Hindu Rashtra
and all that very plainly, because there are four crores of
Muslims living in this land and, in the event of Pakistan
doing something against us, all these four crores of
Muslims may join hands with the Pakistanis.” In reply,
I just asked him, “Then, what has become of your
slogan ‘ Hindu-Muslim bhai-bhai’? Is it not very clear
from your present statement that all those phrases
were born not out of any genuine feeling but out of
fear of the Muslims?” Of course, he could not reply
because that was a fact. It is this fear complex in the
minds of those who call themselves ‘ secular % ‘ broadminded ’
etc., that makes them say “Let us not say ‘Hindu’
which will offend the Muslims into becoming hostile
to us.” But the hostility is there. They only want to

Call for Courage of Conviction

161

appease them into not behaving in a hostile manner.
Story and the Moral

There is an interesting story in the MaMbMrata. Once,
while the Pandavas with their mother Kunti were moving
about incognito, they happened to come to a place called
Ekachakrapuri. There they came to know that the town
was under the control of a terrific demon called Baka.
Once, when he was about to destroy the whole of the
town, the people had entreated him saying, ee Do not kill
us all now. In return for this favour, we will send you
everyday a cart-load of rice and other edibles, two buffaloes
yoked to the cart and the driver for your food.” These were
the terms of the agreement.

Now, the next part of the story is very interesting
and illuminating. Kunti asked the people not to worry
by saying that she would be sending one of her five sons
who was capable of destroying that Edlcshasa. Accord-
ingly Bhima was sent. He went with a cart-load of food
to the place of Baka and shouted aloud, “Hallo! Where
are you? Baka, come on. I have brought your food.”
He let loose the buffaloes and began to eat the food
himself with great relish. Bakasura was amazed to see
that sight. Till then, nobody had dared to call him by
name. They would tremble, bewail their fate and would
only wait for death. Bakasura’s surprise grew into
annoyance when he saw his ‘prey’ feasting upon his own
food! Furious with rage, he dashed towards Bhima and
began showering blows on him. But this gentleman
continued to eat saying, “Wait a bit, let me eat”! After
he had finished everything, he said, “Now, come on. You
have been troubling these poor people for so many days.
The time has now come for us to settle accounts.” And
we know how Bhima settled the account! On the next
morning the people saw to their utter relief the corpse
of the dreaded Bakasura sprawling at the entrance gate of the
town.

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Bunch of Thoughts

These are the two w T ays of dealing with the aggressor.
In both these wavs, the awareness that he is an aggressor
and is hostile is there. So, whether our people go about
saying that we will give five per cent seats, fifteen per cent
seats, we will give so much of parity, we will partition the
land and so on, or they stand up and say, 44 Come on, let us
settle accounts;', in both these attitudes, there is the same
awareness regarding his real nature of hostility.

Thus we find that even though some people may call us
communal and all that, still their beliefs and our beliefs
are the same. Only, we have got the courage to say the
truth, whereas, they try to appease and propitiate out of fear,
of course, under the garb of ‘broad-mindedness’, ‘ secularism *
and so on. That is all. No other difference. The conclusion
that we arrive at is that all those communities that are
staying in this land yet are not true to its salt, have not
imbibed its culture, do not lead the life which this land has
been unfolding for so many centuries, do not believe in its
philosophy, in its national heroes and in all that this
land has been standing for, and are, to put it briefly,
foreign to our national life. And the only real, abiding
and glorious national life in this holy land of Bharat has
been of the Hindu People.

Remember, Conviction is There !

In fact, the conviction of our true nationhood has been
ingrained in our blood since hoary times. Even to this
day that conviction is there in the heart of every son of this
soil, though sometimes lying dormant.

In about the year 1920, Dr. Moonje, who was in
those days a great Congress leader, accompanied by
Dr. Hedgewar, came to Madras on his way to meet
Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. Dr. Moonje travelled in
first-class and our Doctorji travelled in third-class almost
as his attendant. When the train stopped at the previous
station, Doctorji entered Dr. Moonje’s compartment to
pack his luggage. But before he could complete that, the

Call for Courage of Conviction

163

train started. When the train reached Madras station, a
Ticket Inspector said that he would charge Dr. Hedgewar
for illegally travelling in first-class with only a third-class
ticket. Dr. Moonje tried to explain, but finding the Ticket
Inspector obstinate, he snapped angrily, “Well, do you
not believe me? I am the master of the Railway because
I pay the fare. You are after all a servant. You get out.”
The Ticket Inspector also got infuriated and said, “Who
are you to tell me? This is no Muslim country, you get
out. ” Hearing that, both the Doctors had a hearty laugh I
Why did he say so? Because, Dr. Moonje had a long
beard and the Ticket Inspector mistook him to be a
Muslim. Even an ordinary average man spontaneously
feels that this is not a Muslim country.

Many years ago, Govindrao Kale, the ambassador of
the Peshwa at the court of the Nizam, came to know that
the Peshwa had crossed the Sindhu and had carried his
victorious sword right up to Kabul. In his letter of
congratulations, he wrote, “I am so very happy that the
Bhagawa Dhwaj has crossed the Sindhu once again, that all
Muslim power has been shattered and that it has been
once again proved that from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari,
this is 4 Hindusthan and not a 4 Turkistan V* Equally
with that astute diplomat of a great Hindu Kingdom
about 150 years ago, an ordinary Ticket Inspector now
also expressed the same conviction that this was no
Muslim country. This is the truth.

Even Truth Requires ‘Proof’

Unfortunately, some eminent personalities have tried
to lay upon this truth a mass of illusion and falsehood and
are trying to make the Hindus forget that they are the
nation. Even falsehood if repeated incessantly will have
its effect on weak minds. As the story goes, a poor
Brahmin was once carrying a lamb in his arms. Three
thieves, with a plan to knock it off, successively met the
Brahmin and accosted him with the derisive exclamation

164

Bunch of Thoughts

how a pious Brahmin like him was carrying a dog in his
arms. The credulous Brahmin brushed off the suggestion
of the first, began to doubt at its repetition by the second
and finally believed in it when the third repeated it again.
He then threw away the lamb which, of course, was taken
charge of by the thieves.

Let us not shut our eyes to the historical fact that
it was the scheming Britisher who, in order to perpetuate
his stranglehold on our country, planted in our minds
perverted notions of nationhood ir. a bid to break the
proud and defiant spirit of the Hindus which alone
could have posed a real threat to his domination. Even to
this day, do we not see that there are forces inside and
outside our country which would stand to profit by the
subversion of this pure and intense spirit of nationalism
which alone can effectively frustrate all their evil designs?
And knowingly, or unknowingly, our people are also being
swept off their feet by their insidious propaganda designed
to land us on a suicidal track. It is our sacred duty,
therefore, to re-establish the truth of our Hindu Nationhood,
to remove all the debris of falsehood and make every
Hindu realise his proud heritage of being a living limb of
this great Hindu Nation.

But, how can it be done? We know as a matter of
hard experience that even truth requires to be proved, it
needs sanction. Our Shdstras have described that sanction
as Nigrahanugrahakshama shaJcti— a strength that upholds
the good and destroys the evil. We know that in the
Bkagavad-Gita, in the very first chapter, Arjuna comes
forward with his doubts. The next chapter is a complete
answer. After that, Sri Krishna goes on explaining what
he has propounded in the second chapter. But Arjuna is
not satisfied. Ultimately, when Sri Krishna manifests his
colossal Vishwaroopa , he readily says, “ Yes, I now
understand.” After that, he has no more queries about
the fundamental theories of life. After the eleventh
chapter we find Arjuna extremely receptive. Why ?

Call for Courage of Conviction

165

Because of the manifestation of that unbounded power of
Vishwaroopa standing as the sanction behind all the divine
precepts he had heard from Sri Krishna till then.

Once, we invited a prominent Congress leader— who
later became an important Central Cabinet Minister— to
preside over one of our functions at Delhi. He accepted
the invitation. His friends in Congress tried to dissuade
him saying that being a Congressman he should not
associate himself with a ‘communal' organisation like the
R. S. S. But he assured them that he would not compromise
his principles. He came. He saw several thousands of
the Sangh swavamsevaks in excellent trim and uniform. A
huge audience of about three lakhs was also present, main-
taining perfect order and silence. After the introductory-
talk he stood up to give his presidential speech. He said,
“To whom else, if not the Hindus, does this land of
Hindusthan belong? And whose life, if not of Hindus, is
the national life of this soil?” Next day. his speech
appeared in the newspapers. He was then naturally pestered
with objections from his Congress colleagues. Then it is
reported that he replied to them, “None of you would
have spoken anything different had you also seen that
sight ! ” And be was right too. The living manifestation
of the power of Hindu Nation in the form of thousands
of well-disciplined, devoted swayamsevaks standing before
him reawakened the dormant conviction in his heart about
our true nationhood.

Therefore, the foremost duty laid upon every Hindu
is to build up such a holy, benevolent and unconquerable
might of the Hindu People in support of the age-old
truth of our Hindu Nationhood. Our scriptures tell us
that self-forgetfulness is adharma and awakening to the
knowledge of one’s true self is dharma. Thus the path of
re-establishment of dharma shown by all our great masters
of the past is clearly the awakening of the Hindu People
to the truth of their National Self— the glorious, effulgent
Hindu Nationhood.

xn

Internal Threats

/. the

llh

muslint*

Muslims after Partition— Twofold strategy : direct
aggression : swelling numbers— Our leaders’ policy,
violence pays— The time-bomb — Forgetting nothing ,
learning nothing— Miniature Pakistans—‘ Nationalist
Muslims’ exposed— Face Reality.

I T has been the tragic lesson of the history of many a
country in the world that the hostile elements within
the country pose a far greater menace to national security
than aggressors from outside. Unfortunately, this first lesson
of national security has been the one thing which has
been consistently ignored in our country ever since the
British left this land. Wishful thinking born out of lack
of courage to face realities, mouthing of high-sounding
slogans by the persons at the helm of affairs to cover
up the tragedies overtaking us one after another, and
opportunistic alliances of parties and groups with the
hostile elements to further their narrow self-interests, have
all combined to make the threat of internal subversion
to our national freedom and security very acute and real.
First, let us take the case of Muslims.

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167

Even to this day, there are so many who say, “Now
there is no Muslim problem at all. All those riotous
elements who supported Pakistan have gone away once
and for all. The remaining Muslims are devoted to our
country. After all, they have no other place to go and
they are bound to remain loyal.”

Let Facts Speak

But what are the facts? Is it true that all pro-
Pakistani elements have gone away to Pakistan? It was
the Muslims in Hindu majority provinces led by UP, who
provided the spearhead for the movement for Pakistan
right from the beginning. And they have remained solidly
here even after Partition. In fact, the Muslims of Punjab,
Bengal, Sind and NWFP which went over to Pakistan
had totally rejected Muslim League in the 1937 elections.
It was only in later years 'that, because of the wrong
policies of our leadership, the Muslims there were pushed
into the arms of the Muslim League.

And again, before Partition, there were elections for
the setting up of the Constituent Assembly. In those
elections Muslim League had contested making the creation
of Pakistan the election issue. The Congress also had
set up some Muslim candidates all over the country.
But at almost every such place, Muslims voted for the
Muslim League candidates and the Muslim candidates of
Congress were utterly routed. NWFP was an exception.
It only means that all the crores of Muslims that are even
now here, had en bloc voted for Pakistan.

Have those who remained here changed at least after
that? Has their old hostility and murderous mood, which
resulted in widespread riots, looting, arson, raping and all
sorts of orgies on an unprecedented scale in 1946—47, come
to a halt at least now? It would be suicidal to delude
ourselves into believing that they have turned patriots
overnight after the creation of Pakistan. On the contrary ,
the Muslim menace has increased a hundredfold by the

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creation of Pakistan which has become a springboard for
all iheir future aggressive designs on our country.

Pakistan —A Continuing Aggression

Their aggressive strategy has always been twofold.
One is direct aggression. In the pre-independence days*
Jinr.ah called it ‘ Direct Action ’. The first blow got them
Pakistan. Our leaders who were a party to the creation
of Pakistan may try to whitewash the tragedy by saying
that it was a brotherly division of the country and so on-
But the naked fact remains that an aggress ive Muslim
State has been carved out of our own motherland. From
the day the so-called Pakistan came into being, we have
been declaring that it is a clear case of continued Muslim
aggression The Muslim desire ever since they stepped on
this land some twelve-hundred years ago to convert and
enslave the entire country could not bear fruit, in spite of
their political domination for several centuries, because the
conquering spirit of the nation rose in the form of great and
valiant men from time to time, who sounded the death-knell
of their kingdoms here. But even though their kingdoms
lay shattered, their desire for domination did not break up.
In the coming of the British thej' found an opportunity
to fulfil their desire. They played their cards shrewdly,
sometimes creating terror and havoc, and ultimately
succeeded in browbeating our leadership into panicky
surrender to their sinful demand of Partition.

We of the Sangh have been, in fact, hammering this
historical truth for the last so many years. Sometime back>
even the noted world historian Prof. Arnold Toynbee,
came forward to confirm it. He visited our country twice,
studied our national development at close quarters, and
wrote an article setting forth the correct historical perspec-
tive of Partition. Therein he has unequivocally stated that
the creation of Pakistan is the first successful step of the
Muslims in this 20th century to realise their twelve-hundred
year-old dream of complete subjugation of this country.

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169

Their direct aggression, whetted by their first success,
then turned against Kashmir. There too they met with
success, though partial. One third of Kashmir continues
to be in their clutches even to this day. Now Pakistan is
trying to gobble up the rest cf Kashmir also with the help
of powerful pro-Pakistani elements inside Kashmir.

Pursuing Jinnah’s Dream

The second front of their aggression is increasing their
numbers in strategic areas of our country. After Kashmir,
Assam is their next target. They have been systematically
flooding Assam, Tripura and the rest of Bengal since long.
It is not because, as some would like us to believe, East
Pakistan is in the grip of a famine that people are coming
away into Assam and West Bengal. The Pakistani
Muslims have been infiltrating into Assam for the past fifteen
years. Does it mean then that famine has been stalking East
Pakistan all these fifteen years? They are entering Assam
surreptitiously and the local Muslims are sheltering them.
As a result, the percentage of Muslims there which was
only 11% in 1950, has now more than doubled. What else
is this but a conspiracy to make Assam a Muslim majority
province so that it would automatically fall into the lap
of Pakistan in course of time?

In the anti-Bengali riots (1960) that rocked Assam, the
Muslim population and the Muslim ministers, as usual,
played their treacherous game. They set up Assami Hindu
against Bengali Hindu and vice versa as it suited their designs
and carried sword and fire into Hindu hearths and homes
in their bid to oust the Bengali Hindus. By this, they
increased their percentage in relation to the Hindus in that
province. Certain things which have happened there are
tell-tale. Many were the cases where the house of a
Bengali Muslim gentleman was safe but the houses of Bengali
Hindus on either side were burnt down. Papers also have
reported that some persons were arrested while trying
to carry away looted property to East Pakistan. It is

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a patent fact that Muslims from East Pakistan had poured
into Assam in truckloads to carry out their designs. When
we remember that Kashmir and Assam were to have formed
part of the Pakistan of Jinnah's dream, their plan of action
becomes clear as daylight.

It would be suicidal on our part to dismiss their plan
of realising the dream of Jinnah as mere wishful thinking.
And so did we, at one time, dismiss Jinnah’s demand for
Pakistan as ‘fantastic'. But all the same, it is now a
stark reality. Their hectic activities of collecting arms
and ammunition are going on unabated. Their meetings
in masjids and incitement to violence are dangerouly on
the increase. A few years back the Police Commissioner
of Calcutta had warned that the Nakhoda masjid alone
had stored sufficient arms and ammunition to blow up half
of Calcutta and unless the masjid was searched and cleared
of the dangerous stuff, maintaining public peace in
Calcutta was well-nigh impossible. For this courageous
warning he was at once transferred from Calcutta! The
bomb explosions going on in Delhi and several other places
in the country are a glaring proof of their subversive
preparations — if proof be needed even after the history of
a thousand years of their naked aggression.

They are especially emboldened in all their nefarious
designs by the fact that the present-day leadership is too
weak to put a strong check on them. They remember
very well that their acts of violence and bloodshed in
Calcutta, Noakhali and Tippera had unnerved our leaders
and made them succumb to bartering away the unity of
our motherland and handing over a part of the country
to them. Even to this day they see that goondaism
pays rich dividends at the hands of our present leader-
ship.

An incident happened in the wake of the massacres
and mass expulsion of Hindus from East Bengal in 1950.
It was precisely at that period that a series of riots broke
^out in many parts of Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and

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171

Delhi. Our Government suffers form a strange obsession
that wherever there is a ‘communal riot’ there must be the-
hand of R. S. S. in it! Accordingly, the U. P. Government
clamped some of our workers behind bars. Then I happened
to meet Sardar Patel for some other reason. I naturally
inquired why our persons were arrested. He replied that
the U.P. Government had received reports that the Sangh
workers were responsible for all those disturbances. Then
I told him, “ If you had observed the position of the areas-
where the disturbances have taken place, it would have been
clear to you that they are the same as those that Jinnah
had demanded as a corridor to join West and East Pakistan.
Further, these riots have coincided with the mass
expulsion of Hindus from East Bengal. The only meaning
is that they want to browbeat our Government into
yielding to their demand of that corridor.” Sardar Patel
remained silent for a minute and then said, “Yes. There
is truth in what you say.” Needless to say, all our workers-
were released soon after. We were fortunate that we had
in Sardar Patel a person with an iron will to face the reality
in those days.

The Time-Bomb

Sardar Patel was aware that Western U.P. had
continued to be a powerful Muslim pocket as before. He
did not want that it should be linked to West Pakistan by
a continuous Muslim belt. Hence he had taken due-
precautions to see that the Muslims driven out of East
Punjab after Partition did not resettle anywhere near West
Punjab so as to form a continuous Muslim chain from
West Pakistan to U.P. But, on account of pressure from
Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Muslims were allowed to resettle
first in Gurgaon district. Now, over four lakh Muslims have-
resettled in those regions.

There are sure signs that an explosive situation similar
to that of 1946-47 is fast brewing and there is no knowing:
when it will blow up. Right from Delhi to Rampur and

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Lucknow, the Muslims are busy hatching a dangerous plot,
piling up arms and mobilising their men and probably
biding their time to strike from within when Pakistan
decides upon an armed conflict with our country. And
when they do strike, it is very likely that even Delhi may
be rocked to its foundations unless we wake up in time to
nip the mischief in the bud. Not that our leaders do not
know it. The secret intelligence reports reach them all
right. But it seems they have in view only elections.
Elections mean vote catching, which means appeasing
certain sections of people having a solid bloc of votes.
And the Muslims are one such solid bloc. Therein lies
the root of all this appeasement and consequent disastrous
effects.

Forgetting Nothing, Learning Nothing

Muslim League has again raised its ugly head in the
South. The creation of Pakistan woke up the Hindus in the
North, at least for the time being, to the danger of Muslim
League. So the League leaders shifted their headquarters
to the South. Now they have come out with the statement
that they have been carrying on their activities all these
years in secret. The mass agitation in Kerala which brought
down the Communist Government, gave them a golden
opportunity to come out in the open. The elections that
followed proved to be a windfall for them. The Congress,
learning nothing from its past experience of placating the
Muslim League which had landed our country in the cala-
mity of Partition, once again stretched its arms to embrace
that treacherous party during elections. And in order to
Justify their blatantly anti-national move, Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru even gave the Muslim League a clean certificate
of patriotism saying that it was not the old Muslim
League but a new patriotic party devoted to their
community and religion l What a marvellous definition of
patriotism! But to his misfortune, on the very next day,
the All -India President of the Muslim League came out

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173

with the statement that theirs was the same old party with
not a shadow of change ! Now in Kerala, they openly
propagate for an independent ‘Moplanadh

In these developments, one almost sees over half-a-
century-old happenings coming to life once again. During
the twenties, in a bid to win the friendship of Muslims, our
leaders had called upon the Hindus to take up the Khilafat
movement (a movement against the British who had
dethroned the king in Turkey) as their own. In Kerala
too, Hindus came forward with men and money' to help
the movement. But the Muslim wrath against the British
soon developed into a jehad against the Hindu ‘kafirs*
carrying with it all the usual atrocities of Muslim barba-
rism like killing, burning, molesting, looting and forcible
conversions. When the news of these hair-raising atroci-
ties reached and shocked other parts of the country, an
eminent leader came out in open appreciation of those
heinous Muslim criminals, calling them ‘brave Moplas’ I
Let us just compare those words with the words of the
present leaders speaking of them as ‘patriotic' and we will
get an idea of the long suicidal stupor which has deadened
all our faculties of national alertness and security.

Everywhere the Muslims are being abetted in their
separatist and subversive activities by our own Govern-
ment, our leaders and political parties. Take the case of
Calcutta riots which occurred in the wake of the holocaust
of Hindus in Khulna, Narayanganj and Dacca areas of
East Pakistan in 1963. Our own men in power tried to
paint it as a reaction to those East Bengal riots. But what
are the facts ? It was the Muslims in Calcutta who first
started the attack on a peaceful procession of students. And
it was again they who set fire to the grand exhibition pandal
erected in connection with the Swami Vivekananda cente-
nary celebrations and destroyed the precious exhibits.
Can anyone in his senses believe that the Hindus of
Calcutta could have destroyed a pandal containing Swami
Vivekananda’s exhibits? It was only after the Muslims

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began perpetrating such vandalism that the Hindus rose to
defend themselves. Thus the Calcutta riots were, beyond
a shadow of doubt, only an extension of— and not a reac-
tion to— the riots in East Bengal.

But our Government, as usual, following in the foot-
steps of their erstwhile British masters, came down upon
the Hindus with a heavy hand and shot them indiscrimi-
nately. One of our Central Ministers even declared,
“Every Muslim life is sacred to us”, whereas every life
ought to be a sacred trust with any Government worth the
name. He even boasted that more Hindus were killed in
police firing than Muslims. By this statement he had only
betrayed the real mind of the Government in the matter.
That, in fine, is how things are going on in our own
country.

Countless ‘Miniature Paki stans ’

In fact, all over the country wherever there is a masjid
or a Muslim mohalla, the Muslims feel that it is their
own independent territory. If there is a procession of
Hindus with music and singing, they get enraged saying
that their religious susceptibilities are wounded. If their
religious feelings have become so sensitive as to be irritated
by sweet music then why don’t they shift their masjids to
forests and pray there in silence? Why should they insist
on planting a stone on the roadside, whitewash it, call it
a prayer spot and then raise a hue and cry that their
prayers are disturbed if music is played ?

Some years back, an Arab Muslim moulvi who was on
a visit to our country was requested to recite Quran as
they do in their country. To that he replied, “There we
sing to the accompaniment of harmonium, tabor and such
other musical instruments. Here if I do that, the local
idiotic Muslims will cut me to pieces!” Is it not obvious
that the so-called religious susceptibility of the Muslims
here regarding music has nothing to do with religion or
prayer but is solely motivated with a view to picking up

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175

quarrel with the Hindus and establish their own little
independent cells?

How is it that they dare to carry on these offensive and
anti-national practices openly ? It is because our Government
too overtly and covertly supports them. Though the
High Courts have upheld the fundamental right of the
citizens to go in procession with band in all public roads,
the Government, under the cover of discretionary powers
vested in the executive for regulating processions in the
interest of peace and order, often prevents the Hindus
altogether from taking out processions in streets where
masjids happen to be situated. That could set the
premium on those who want to violate peace. And peaceful
citizens, in the enjoyment of their inherent rights as
citizens, are the prey of such violations. The law-abiding
citizens are told to restrict themselves, and those who are
out to indulge in violence are given a free hand to do
what they like. This is in a way admitting, though
indirectly, that within the country there are so many
Muslim pockets, i. e., so many ‘miniature Pakistans’, where
the general law of the land Is to be enforced only with
certain modifications and the whims of the miscreants
have to be given the final say. This acceptance, indirect
though it may be, implies a very dangerous theory fraught
with possibilities of destruction of our national life
altogether. Such 4 pockets ’ have verily become centres-
of a widespread network of pro-Pakistani elements in
this land.

Instances Galore

To cite an example, there was a riot in Malegaon
(1963) in Maharashtra. The idol of Ganesha was being-
taken in procession for immersion. The Muslims attacked
it. There was a skirmish. The Government, as usual r
came forward to establish law and order, and took into
custody scores of leading Hindu gentlemen as though
they were responsible for the outbreak of the lawlessness l

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Later, I had occasion to meet one important high-up in
that State. I said to him, “This incident took place at
about 9 or 10 o’clock in the night. The very next morning
the Pakistan radio broadcast that there had been ‘a great
genocide of Muslims’ in that particular town! How did
Pakistan come to know about the affair within these few
hours? There must be some pro-Pakistani gentleman with
a transmitter and he must be in constant touch with Pakistan.”
He said, “Yes, that is the only possibility.” Then I asked
him, “Do you know that the reports of even the in-camera
conferences that go on in the Prime Minister’s house which
are supposed to be very confidential often go to Peking
and Rawalpindi the very same night?” He said, “Yes,
I am aware of it.”

The conclusion is that, in practically every place,
there are Muslims who are in constant touch with Pakistan
over the transmitter enjoying not only the rights of an
average citizen but also some extra privileges and extra
favour because they are ‘minorities’! Our C. I. D. department
seems to be more concerned about patriotic persons than
about such elements as are trying to undermine our very
national existence!

Sometime back an M. L. A. threw a challenge in the
U. P. Assembly that several transmitters were active in
Lucknow City alone and that he would guide the police—
if they dared — to trace them. So far the Government does
not seem to have heard him at all! No wonder the
• enemy agents carry on their nefarious schemes merrily as
if the Government itself is on their side ! Such elements
may be there even in positions of high responsibility and
strategic importance. We are sitting as if on a volcano,
feeling that all is well with our ‘ secular world

The Great ‘Nationalist Muslims’

Let us at least now wake up, look around and under-
stand the true significance of the words and actions of
■even the very eminent Muslims. Their own statements

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177

have exposed the greatest of the so-called 4 nationalist Muslims >
in their true colours today.

Maulana Mohammed Ali, the right hand man of Mahatma
Gandhi in the early days of freedom struggle, had announced
in public, not once but repeatedly, that the worst sinner and
debauchee among the Muslims was, in his eyes, far superior
to even Mahatma Gandhi!

I had once an opportunity to talk to a great scholar of
the Sufi sect in our country. Ke said that the only way to
meet the challenge of the godless philosophy of Communism
was to mobilise and bring together all men having faith in
God to whatever sect or religion they might belong. I asked
him, “What is that common plank on which all can come
together?” Without a moment’s hesitation he replied,
“Islam”! That is how the minds of even their so-called
scholars and philosophers work!

The greatest ‘nationalist Muslim’ of our times,
Maulana Azad too in his last days gave out his mind in
the book ‘India Wins Freedom’ in unmistakable terms.
Firstly, the whole of the book, from start to finish, is an
unabashed egocentric narration which depicts all other
leaders including Gandhiji, Nehru etc., as simpletons and
Patel as a communalist. Secondly, he has not a single
word of censure for the heinous massacres and atrocities
committed by Muslims on Hindus in various places like
Calcutta, Noakhali etc. More than all, the entire burden
of his opposition to the creation of Pakistan was that it
would be against the interests of Muslims ! In effect,
Azad says, the Muslims were fools in following Jinnah, as
thereby they got only a fraction of the land whereas if they
had followed his advice they would have had a decisive voice
in the affairs of the entire country in addition to all the
benifits of Pakistan ! Even Sri Mehrchand Mahajan, Ex-Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, has come out with the same
comments about that book. For instance, he says, “The
Maulana was more shrewd than Mr. Jinnah. Left to [him, India
would have become virtually a Muslim- dominated country. ”

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Tace Reality

Even today, Muslims, whether in high positions of the
Government or outside, participate openly in rabidly anti-
national conferences. Their speeches too carry the ring of
open defiance and rebellion. A Muslim Minister at the
Centre, speaking from the platform of one such conference,
warned that unless the Muslim interest was well-protected the
story of Spain would be repeated here also, meaning thereby
that they would rise in armed revolt.

They have now been emboldened to such an extent that
they are not only contesting elections in the name of the
Muslim League in several provinces but are invariably raising
the slogan c Pakistan Zindabad ’ in their public meetings and
processions. For them, only those areas in which their
unbridled sway is established are ‘ Pak ’, i.e., holy, and the rest
of Bharat where they are living and flourishing is ‘na-Pak’,
i.e., unholy. Can any son, however debased and depraved he
may be, ever call his mother unholy and sinful ? And still,
we are asked to believe that such elements are the sons of this
soil !

Let us cry a halt, before it is too late, to this long
and suicidal spell of wishful thinking and come to grips
with the cruel realities of the situation keeping the
interests of national security and integrity as the one supreme
consideration.

xn

Internal Threats

2. the c lit nil- an. J

Under < humanitarian * mask— Irreligious and political
tactics— Niyogi Committee’s verdict — Activities in
Nagaland, Kerala etc.— Same story the world over -

S O far as the Christians are concerned, to a superficial
observer they apper not only quite harmless but as
the very embodiment of sympathy and love for humanity!
Their speeches abound in words like ‘service 5 and ‘human
salvation 5 as though they are specially deputed by the
Almighty to uplift humanity ! Everywhere they run schools
and colleges, hospitals and orphanages. The people of our
country, simple and innocent as they are, are taken in by
all these things. But what is the real and ulterior motive
of Christians in pouring crores of rupees in all these
activities ?

The Claw Bared

Our late President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, had once
gone to Assam. He visited the schools and hospitals that
the Christian missionaries had established in those hilly
regions and expressed his appreciation. But he also
advised them at the end, “You have no doubt done very

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Bunch of Thoughts

good work. But do not exploit all these things for the
purpose of proselvtisation.” But the missionary who spoke
next bluntly said, “If we had been prompted to do all this
by mere humanitarian considerations, why should we have
come all the way here ? Why should we have spent so much
money? We are here for only one reason and that is to
increase the number of followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
They are very clear about it.

Towards that end they feel that every tactics, however
foul, is fair. The various surreptitious and mean tactics
they employ for conversion are all too well known. There
is the case of a village where, in the last census, the Christian
missionaries got the whole population entered as Christians.
When the mischief was known and the people there protested*
the Christian missionaries told them, “Nothing can be
done now. You have been registered as Christians in
Government records. So you have to behave hereafter only
as Christians.” The poor Hindu villagers, cut off from the
support and succour of the indifferent Hindu Society, believed
in their words and embraced Christianity. It is through
such tactics that they are swelling their numbers day in
and day out.

Many leading Christian missionaries have often
declared unequivocally that their one single aim is to
make this country 4 a province of the Kingdom of Christ’.
The Archbishop of Madurai has said, as reported in
4 Vedanta Kesari’ of Madras, that their sole aim is to fly
the flag of Christ over the whole of Bharat. Even during
the recent 4 Eucharistic Congress 5 at Bombay, Cardinal
Gracias bewailed that after centuries of proselytising
in Bharat the Catholics were only six million and the
overwhelming majority remained Hindus. He exhorted his
followers that every one of them should hereafter feel
himself a missionary in the cause of proselytisation.
What does all this mean? It means that all the people in
this country should be converted to Christianity. That
is, their hereditary religion, philosophy, culture and way

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181

of life should be demolished and they should become absorbed
in a world federation of Christianity.

Religion or Polities?

The way they are behaving towards other people forces
us to conclude that the modern proselytising religions have
very little of true religion in them. In the name of God,
Prophet and religion, they are only trying to further their
political ambitions. In true religion there need be no
proselytisation, no change in the way of worship. Our
religious missionaries who reached distant lands in ancient
times did not force their religion on other people. On
the contrary, without negating their mode of worship, our
great teachers tried to make it more sublime by fortifying
it with an all-comprehensive philosophy, to inculcate in
them noble and chaste qualities of head and heart and
make them better devotees in their own form of worship.
That was real dharma.

The concept of religion as propagated by the Christian
missionaries is really amazing. Once I met a missionary.
He gave me a book written by an Archbishop in England
and told me that the book would make the nature of
their work clear to me. I read it. When I returned it
to him, he asked me with quite an interest, “ How is
the book?*’ I replied, “If such is your Archbishop, what
about you? ” That startled him. I pointed out to him
some passages in that book which said that to attain
God it is enough if one prays twice a day and attends
the church on Sundays and that during the rest of the
time there is no harm in indulging in any kind of physical
pleasures and enjoyments. These w'ords are, in fact,
totally opposed to the sublime teachings of that great seer,
Jesus Christ.

Even St. Paul, the great disciple of Christ, has said,
as quoted by Lokamanya Tilak in his Gita Rahasya , “ How

can it be a sin if by uttering falsehood I add to Your
< God’s) Glory?” No wonder, the present Christian

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missionaries have made full use of that statement to
further their nefarious designs. Truly has it been said*
“ There was but one true Christian, and he died on the
Cross ! ”

The Impartial Verdict

Their activities are not merely irreligious, they are also
anti-national. Once I asked a Christian missionary why
they abused our sacred scriptures, gods and goddesses.
He said frankly, 46 Our aim is to knock out the faith
from the heart of the Hindu. When his faith is shattered*
his nationalism is also destroyed. A void will be created
in his mind. Then it becomes easy for us to fill that void
with Christianity.”

Some years back, the Madhya Pradesh Government
appointed a committee to report on the activities of these
Christian missionaries. The Chairman of the Committee*
Sri Niyogi, was a highly respectable retired High Court
Judge, not belonging to any group or party. The Committee
members toured the whole of Madhya Pradesh and met
the converted Christians, missionaries and other people.
They also visited many churches. On the basis of all
these personal investigations, the Committee prepared a
lengthy report. The substance of that report is : “ All the
philanthropic acts of the missionaries are simply a mask
for carrying on proselytising activities, sometimes by
intimidating and sometimes by tempting the simple folk.
At the root of these activities is their ambition to carve out
a separate Christian State for themselves on the strength
of their numbers. They are spending countless crores of
rupees for that single purpose. ”

For a ' Padrestan’

The creation in Assam of ‘Nagaland' is a glaring
example in point. That the open rebellion going on in
the Naga Hills is all engineered by the Christian
missionaries was accepted even by Pandit Nehru. But

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183

our Government is never tired of telling the country time
and again that ‘peace’ has been established there, only to
be followed on the next day by the news that some train
was looted, some bridge was blown up or some of our army
men were ambushed and killed! When it was asked in
Parliament how the rebels had come in possession of such
large quantities of arms and ammunition, the reply given
was that, during the last war, when the Japanese were
fleeing, being unable to carry the load of arms, they threw
them away in the jungles and the Nagas took possession of
them. But a report had appeared in the press that
during one of the clashes with our military some rebels
were killed and their arms were captured. The arms were of
the latest American make with an imprint of the year of
manufacture. It was 1955 and 1956 ! And we are asked by our
leaders to believe that the Nagas had secured those American
arms made in 1955 and 1956, as far back as 1914!
It is reported that the Nagas are in possession of even
anti-aircraft guns of the latest model. It is also evident
how these arms must have come into their possession. The
American arms which come to Pakistan are handed over to
the Christian missionaries in Assam.

Thus the revolt has continued and for the time being,
our leaders have partly accepted their demand and set up
Nagaland. The ominous feature about it is that it is
under the direct charge of the Foreign Ministry and not of
the Home Ministry which governs all other States in our
country today. The pressure under which this concession
was made is still continuing. This pressure is of two
types. One is the internal rebellion which is still continuing
and gaining momentum in view of the partial success they
have achieved. Even after the decision to form Nagaland,
one of our planes was shot down. The second type
of pressure is international. We know that Phizo, the
rebel Naga leader, disappeared from our country with the
help of Pakistan and some others and went to England.
He was given asylum by a noted Christian missionary.

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Michael Scott, who abetted him in making various
statements damaging our reputation. Our leaders, who
are oversensitive with regard to their international reputa-
tion — whatever it may be ! — thought it better to give
a Nagaland than stake their reputation as peace-makers
in the world. And now they have started 4 peace talks *
with the Naga rebels with a view to giving them greater
autonomy, and included that gentleman Michael Scott in
the ‘peace mission’. To shc-w themselves off as peace-
makers, partition of the country seems to be a very cheap-
price for our leaders. Since that international pressure
is also mounting, it will be little wonder if at no
distant date Nagaland is separated and formed into an
independent State ridden and dominated by the Christian
fanatics.

Agents of World Strategy

There is already the demand for another separate Hill
State round about Shillong in Assam inspired by the
Christian missionaries. They are also carrying on agitation
for a separate ‘Jharkhand’ in Bihar. Of course, our leaders
have categorically stated that their demands are fantastic
and cannot be met. But we cannot be sure of what will
happen in future. Because our experience tells us that
whenever our leaders vehemently denounce a particular
demand as fantastic, anti-national and so on, then it is a
sure indication that they have already made up their mind
to accede to it ! That has been our uniform experience right
from Partition down to the formation of Nagaland.

Then in Kerala, during the people’s agitation against
the Communist Ministry, the Christian leaders used to
say that it was a life and death struggle for the Christian
Missions in Kerala. They also went to the extent of saying,
“ Kerala shall be ruled either by the Catholics or by the
Communists. And we want to rule.”

In a pamphlet circulated at an international gathering,
of Christian Fathers in Europe some years ago, a detailed

Internal Threats — II

185

plan was put forth to start centres of Christian influence
all along our coast and right across the country through the
Vindhyas and the Satpuras. That was the first stage of
the plan — to surround the Southern peninsula and make it
Christian-dominated. Then the whole of the Himalayan
belt was to be captured in the second sweep.

Sometime back, the news had leaked out in papers
that an agreement had been reached between the Christian
missions in our country and the Muslim League that the
two should join together and between themselves partition
the country, the whole of the Gangetic plain between Punjab
and Manipur going to the Muslims and the Peninsula and
the Himalayas to the Christians.

A few years ago, there was an All-India Conference of
Christians wherein they were called upon to pledge them-
selves to establish Christian Empire in Bharat. And one
of our Central Ministers was present there to bless the
proceedings.

Such is the role of Christian gentlemen residing in our
land today, out to demolish not only the religious and
social fabric of our life but also to establish political domina-
tion in various pockets and if possible all over the land.
Such has been, in fact, their role wherever they have
stepped— all under the alluring garb of bringing peace and
brotherhood to mankind under the angelic wings of Jesus
Christ. Jesus had called upon his followers to give their
all to the poor, the ignorant and the downtrodden. But
what have his followers done in practice? Wherever they
have gone, they have proved to be not ‘blood-givers’ but
£ bloodsuckers ’ ! What is the fate of all those lands
colonised by these so-called disciples of Christ? Wherever
they have stepped, they have drenched those lands with the
blood and tears of the natives and liquidated whole races.
Do we not know the heart-rending stories of how they
annihilated the natives in America, Australia and Africa?
Why go so far? Are we not aware of the atrocious history
of Christian missionaries in our own country, of how they

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Bunch of Thoughts

carried sword and fire in Goa and elsewhere ?

There is the story of 4 Saint ’ Xavier, who used to

experience the highest joy of his life when he used to

see the new coverts trampling upon their former gods and
goddesses, razing their temples to the ground and insulting

their own parents and elders who remained Hindus. And

even as recently as during the Congress rule (a de facto
Christian rule!) in Kerala after the quitting of the British,
hundreds of ancient and sacred Hindu temples, including
the famous one at Shabarimalai, were desecrated and their
idols broken by the Christian vandals. It is the same
Christian fanatics who smashed the Vivekananda Memorial
Tablet on the Vivekananda Rock at Kanyakumari. Such
are the men who come to us to preach that Christianity
would shower bliss of peace and milk of human kindness
on humanity !

So long as the Christians here indulge in such activities
and consider themselves as agents of the international
movement for the spread of Christianity, and refuse to offer
their first loyalty to the land of their birth and behave as
true children of the heritage and culture of their ancestors,
they will remain here as hostiles and will have to be
treated as such.

xn

Internal Threats

3 . tilt C0ttlH1.UM.lltl

How Communism strikes root— Wrong approach of the
West — Reactionary remedies ; Bhoodan — Danger of
Socialism— In the footprints of China— Revive national
genius.

A FTER the British quit this land and we became free to
shape our future national set-up, the discussion of
various theories and ‘isms’ has become a live issue for us.
No doubt we have opted for the Western type of democratic
set-up. But have we been able to reap its beneficial fruits
after all these years of experimentation ? Instead of
symbolising the collective will of the people, it has given
rise to all sorts of unhealthy rivalries and forces of selfishness
and fission.

Preparing Ground for Communism

A serious failure of democracy in our country is the
growing menace of Communism which is a sworn enemy
of democratic procedure. In a bid not to be left behind
the Communists in their economic appeal to the masses,
our leaders are only making Communism more respectable
by themselves taking up the Communist jargon and the
Communist programmes. If the leaders imagine that they

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Bunch of Thoughts

will be able to take away the wind out of the Communist
sail by such tactics, they are sadly mistaken.

They also feel that economic development is the only
defence against Communism. It is the constant dinning
into the ears of the masses the promise of ‘higher
standards of life’, thus raising their expectations at a time
when they cannot possibly be satisfied, that is aggravating
the sense of frustration and paving the way for popular
discontent and chaos. Nowhere do we find the appeal to
higher sentiments like patriotism, character and know-
ledge; nor is there any stress on cultural, intellectual
and moral development. It is only in such imbecile and
despairing minds that the seeds of Communism strike
root.

Adding Fuel to the Fire

The approach of the Western countries to the menace
of Communism is also adding its own share in giving a
fillip to the spread of Communism here. America believes
that mere dollar aid will solve the problem of Communism.
As experience has shown in the case of China and now
Viet Nam, such aid will be of little avail without a
corresponding buliding up of national character and
morale. They countrywide propaganda that accompanies
each one of their economic aids is only aggravating the
‘economic consciousness’ of the masses to the exclusion of
those aspects that form the real backbone of a free and
democratic life.

The Westerners also suffer from a strange hallucination
that the old Hinduism must go if our country is to be saved
from Communism. They feel that Christianity alone can
stem the tide of Communism. Once, Arnold Toynbee had
truly described Communism as a ‘Christian heresy’ and
strangely enough it is he who has now come forward to say
that Christianity is the one answer to Communism. How
can Christianity solve a problem which came up as a
reaction due to its own deficiencies ? Those who think

Internal Threats — III

189

Christianity alone can save this 4 heathen country ’ should
pause and ponder why Russia, the most orthodox country
of Christendom, disowned Christ. In our own country,
is it not significant that the province where the Christian
population and influence is the greatest, Kerala, is also
the biggest Communist pocket? If the Westerners
believe that by pouring men and money to convert
Hindus to Christianity they will save this country from
Communism, they are only labouring under a suicidal self-
deception. Because, the spread of Christianity shatters
the ancient faith and nationalism of the people, and
Communism takes root only where faith is shattered. That
has been the major psychological factor in the growth
of Communism.

When Faith Goes Communism Comes

Man does not live by bread alone. He must have a
faith to live by and die for. Without such a faith life loses
its direction and meaning, and man begins to drift. He
feels lost. It is an impossible state of being. Till the rise
of science, Christianity provided the necessary faith for
European life. But science made mincemeat of Christianity.
It blasted the Christian concept of time, space, life and the
world. However, Europe lost one sheet-anchor but gained
another. It lost its faith in religion but gained a new faith
in science. Indeed, science became its new religion. Then
people believed science to be omniscient and omnipotent as
any God thought of in any religion.

However, within a course of some centuries, science
began disproving itself. The scientists began to confess
their ignorance of the Universe. Einstein, than whom
there has been no greater scientist in recent times, admitted
the existence of a Reality beyond the reach of physical
sciences. Thus, from the omniscient mood of the Victorian
Era, the scientists felt themselves no more than picking
pebbles on the shore with a whole ocean of knowledge lying
unexplored before them. This collapse of faith in science

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Bunch of Thoughts

left the Western man rudderless on an unexplored sea.
The old faiths were dead and no new faiths were in sight.
It was in this situation of vacuity of faith that some
specious faiths came to fill the gap. One such faith was
Communism.

So any attempt, from whatever quarter, to uproot our
ancient and life-giving faith, a faith which has sustained us
and produced the finest flowers of human culture, is bound
to bring about sure national disaster.

Danger of Reactionary Approach

Various are the attempts going on to neutralise the
appeal of Communism in our country. Some people feel
that the Bhoodan movement launched by Vinobaji will
take away the appeal of Communism. On the contrary,
with its Communistic slogan of * land to the tiller 5 and with
threats like, “If you do not give of your own accord.
Communists are bound to come up and take away your all
by force” by some of his shortsighted followers, it will only
give rise to an impression in the mass mind that after all
Communism is correct and is inevitable. It will be an
indirect sanction for Communism. Further, the masses
will have a suspicious feeling that all such movements
which come up in the name of their uplift are only half-
hearted and deceptive. They may very well say, “Now
that the Communists are making headway, you want to
come forward with all these reforms and promises! We
would rather prefer the blunt Communists. They are
at least honest and bold. They mean what they say and
we can believe them.” Thus, contrary to expectations,
this movement may pave the way for Communists. In fact,
to work merely with a view to counteracting Communism is’
always dangerous. It is only the inculcation of a right and
positive faith that can make the masses rise above the base
appeal of Communism.

There are again some who feel that the growth of
Communism is inevitable so long as economic disparity

Internal Threats — III

191

persists. But the fact is, enonomic disparity is not the real
cause for mutual hatred on which the Communists thrive.
The idea of dignity of labour is not properly imbibed by our
people. For example, a rikshawala who gets a daily earning
of 3 to 4 rupees is addressed as 4 a fellow ’ and a clerk getting
but Rs. 60 a month is addressed as ‘Babuji’. It is this
disparity in outlook spread in all walks of our life which
creates hatred. This is a recent perversion that has entered
our life. In our philosophy, there is no distinction of high
or low in one’s karma , i.e., duty. Every work is the worship
of the same Almighty in the form of society. This spirit
has to be once again revived.

4 Socialism by Ballot’

The threat of Communism has become real from another
quarter in our country. And that is by the present policy
of our Government who have declared ‘Socialism’ (same
in content as Communism and differing only in the method
of achievement) as their goal. In the first place, our
leaders say that they will achieve Socialism by the ballot-
box and not by the bullet as was done in China and Russia.
That only means that there is a difference between the
people in China and Russia, and the people in our country.
In China and Russia, probably the people were alive and
kicking and therefore they had to be cowed down by the
bullet. Here, our people are docile hero-worshippers. If
the hero comes and says, “My dear friend, come on, bend
forward, I want to behead you”, our people will certainly
bend forward and offer to be beheaded! With such docile
people, why is the bullet required? A ballot-box is
sufficient. If the leader says, “Vote for Socialism”, the
people will vote for Socialism. If tomorrow they find that
having voted for Socialism their independence is gone, and
as individuals they have become only dead parts of a
machine, they will take it as an ordinance of fate and
submit to it.

Our people submitted to the Muslim rule for more than

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Bunch of Thoughts

a thousand years, to the extent that even today we find
people saying that Muslims were great and godly persons!
Some have even gone to the extent of saying that we must
erect statues to Hyder who jailed his Hindu king and
usurped his throne, and to his son Tippu who forcibly con-
verted countless people to Islam, demolished many temples
and molested a number of women! To this extent the
infatuation still remains. When the British came, some
persons said, “They have been sent from heaven.” Some
even told, “In the Bhavishya Purana , it has already been
prophesied that our country would be ruled by a queen
named Vikateshwari and she is none other than Queen Victoria
herself” ! With such a docile people a little propaganda
is enough.

In John Bunyan’s ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’, the Pilgrim
is caught by the Giant. The Giant wants to murder
him strightaway but on advice from his wife tries to
persuade him to commit suicide. The Giant says, “Why
are you undergoing all the troubles of life? Nothing is
sweeter than suicide. Choose whatever you like, knife,
halter or poison, make an end of your miserable life and be
relieved forever. ” He so convinces [the Pilgrim that the
latter gets ready to commit suicide. Just then a friend
counsels the Pilgrim and prevents him from falling into that
trap. The moral is, for innocent docile people, a little
persuasion does the work of a bullet.

The Writing on the Wall

Under the garb of Socialism, what is it that is actually
taking place? We find that all the measures being under-
taken here are only an improved carbon copy of what had
happened in China. The only difference is that these deve-
lopments were brought about by brutal violence in China
whereas here the same things are being done by polished
propaganda. This will be quite clear to us if we compare
the governmental measures of both countries. When the
present Communist Government in China first came to

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193

power, they did not want any challenge to their absolute
power. So they liquidated the old nobles, chiefs and
industrialists and nationalised all industries. They liquidated
the big landholders and ultimately the smaller zamindars
and farmers.

Here also, landlords were liquidated. Now the 17th
Amendment has come by which even the smaller farmer,
having even half an acre of land, is considered an estate-holder,
and the Government is empowered to take away his property
practically without any compensation. Co-operative farming,
collective farming, nationalisation of banks and industries
and such socialistic doctrines are in the atmosphere. All
this is in a way following the Chinese line step by step.
Let us try to see the close parallel and read the writing
on the wall. And before we are reduced to mere slaves and
tools, beware!

Further, Socialism is not a product of this soil. It is
not in our blood and tradition. It has absolutely nothing
to do with the traditions and ideals of thousands of years
of our national life. It is a thought alien to crores of
our people here. As such it does not have the power to
thrill our hearts, to inspire us to a life of dedication and
character. Thus we see that it does not possess even the
primary qulification to serve as an ideal for our national
life.

Unfit on All Counts

And finally, as we have already seen, Socialism (the same
as Communism in its original form, as even Russia calls
itself a Socialist State) was born as a reaction steeped in the
theory of class conflict and has failed to deliver the goods in
Russia itself. As a theory it has exploded long back and now
it has exploded in practice also.

Nowadays our leaders are trying to cover up the fatal
defect of Socialism, i.e., the wiping out of the individual as
a living entity, by coining new slogans like ‘Democratic
Socialism’, ‘Socialistic Democracy’ and so on. As a

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Bunch of Thoughts

matter of fact, the two concepts of Democracy and Socialism
are mutually contradictory. Socialism cannot be democratic
and Democracy cannot be socialistic. For, individual
freedom, as we have seen, is the first faith with Democracy,
whereas it is the first victim of Socialism. In Democracy,
the majesty of the individual is held high, whereas, in
Socialism, he is only a cog in the wheel, only a lifeless
screw in the colossal machine called State.

Revive National Genius

Thus, after the quitting of the British, we find ourselves
in a confused state of affairs trying to catch at something
of each of the foreign theories and ‘isms’. This* is highly
humiliating to a country which has given rise to an all-
comprehensive philosophy, capable of furnishing the true
and abiding basis for reconstruction of national life on
political, economic, social and all other planes. It would
be sheer bankruptcy of our intellect and originality if we
believe that human intelligence has reached its zenith with
the present theories and * isms ’ of the West. Let us therefore
evolve our own way of life based on the eternal truths
discovered by our ancient seers and tested on the touchstone
of reason, experience and history.

Part Three

The Path to Glory

xra

Meeting the Historic Need.

Our indebtedness to society —The best service— Past
glory —Destruction by enemies— Once powerful and
free— Race of Jay achands leads to Muslim and British
success— The malady continues; formation of
Pakistan— A house divided — History repeating itself;
Dravidanad etc.— Federal structure, a poisonous seed —
Basic cure.

T HE founder of our organisation used to put forth, the
aim of the Sangh in a small pithy sentence: “We
have to organise and make our Hindu Society so powerful
that no power on earth will dare cast an evil eye upon
it.” This is the foremost duty that has devolved upon all
the children of this great society.

Our Debt of Gratitude

What makes us say that we are duty-bound to devote
ourselves to this mission of organising our society? Firstly,
we are all born and brought up in this society. The
happiness and security of our individual and family life
have been made possible by the fact of our birth in this
society.

Another important consideration is also there. Ours
is an ancient and immortal society which has given birth
to the greatest personalities in all walks of life and has

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Bunch of Thoughts

evolved the highest philosophy and the noblest social
standards.' -The stamp of that greatness on the world can be
seen even to this day when others refer to a son of this soil as
The descendant of a Rama, a Krishna and a Shankaracharya,
in whose blood the glorious virtues of all those illustrious
predecessors— those world masters in every field of knowledge
and of action— are inherited \

What does all this indicate? It is, that our birth in
the Hindu Society has conferred all this unique honour
upon us, in addition to a happy physical sustenance, and
opened the path for us to scale the sublime heights of those
great souls.

Thus, in how many ways and how immensely are we
indebted to our society ! Then, will it be befitting on our
part to go on merely enjoying all its fruits and merits without
caring for doing our duty towards it? It has been said in
our scriptures that a man should live on what is left over
after offering to society. Thus, it is our first duty to absolve
ourselves from that debt of gratitude. Therein lies the
fruitfulness of our life.

How Shall We Serve?

Then, what is the way in which we can repay that
debt? A true devotee says to the Almighty, “Oh, Lord!
With what shall I worship Thee? Flower, sandal paste and
water are all Thine. Thou art the Effulgence of the light
that I wave. Everything is Thine. Then, what else is left
to me but to offer all that Thou hast bestowed on me at
Thy feet and remain as Thy humblest servant?” Right
from the hoary times, our society has been described as our
living form of God. Let us also adopt that form as our
Chosen Deity and resolve to serve it all through our life as
a token of our indebtedness.

What then is the type of service that we are to do?
Many and varied are the possible ways of service. Giving
food to the hungry, knowledge to the ignorant or medicine
to the diseased— each is a type of service. That is, true

Meeting the Historic Need

199

service implies removing the deficiency in the object of our
service. Now, what is that deficiency in our society today?
Doubtless, our society today presents an agonising
picture of ignorance, poverty, untouchability, immorality
and so on. We also see so man> efforts being put forth
by well-meaning persons to remedy those defects. And it
is but natural that we should have kind feelings towards
them. But the question is, can we call these efforts the
real type of service that our society is in dire need of
today? Will they lead to the ultimate, abiding welfare of
our society? It would be futile to treat and bandage the
superficial boils, coming up one after another, when the
blood has become infected. It is only when the root cause
is remedied that the malady is cured. What is that root
cause ?

Picture : Past and Present

Is it true that our society, in the past too, presented the
same picture of poverty and misery as we witness today?
History has a totally different story to narrate. Some of
the foreign travellers who had come here in the past have
left their eye-witness accounts of what they saw here.
Those writings, which are extant even today, say, “The
people here are happy and contented. There are no destitutes,
no beggars. The people leave their houses unlocked for
years when they go out on pilgrimage without a trace of
fear of theft. There are very few cases of moral aberration ;
they are all highly virtuous, generous and reliable in their
dealings. They are a virile and powerful race, wealthy

and wise ” Those foreign visitors could have had no

ulterior motives in recording such glowing descriptions.
There was no iron curtain in our country as in Russia
and China today. They had moved about for several years
as they liked, throughout the length and breadth of our
country. Then, those accounts must be relied upon as
correct beyond a shadow of doubt.

It was not as if, as is often misunderstood, our people

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Bunch of Thoughts

had achieved eminence only in the spiritual field to the
neglect of other walks of the day-to-day practical life.
Authentic ancient records have conclusively shown that we
were many centuries ahead of the times in every branch of
science and art. The absolutely rustless, shining, 2000-year-
old pillar, Ashoka Stambha, stands to this day as an unbeaten
challenge in metallurgy.

There is an anecdote narrated in our old books and
also in foreign records. One of the Roman kings suffered
from a strange disease which could not be cured by anyone
in his kingdom. He sought the help of our country, then
considered a master in the science of medicine. One of our
royal physicians went there, opened his skull and carried
out an operation on his brain. The king was cured of the
disease. The physician stayed there for three more years to
teach those people that science and then returned, laden with
great honours. It must be remembered that even at this
advanced stage of surgery, operation of the brain is taken
to be a very serious risk.

We were never a homesick people either. With the
resounding cry of Krinvanto vishwamaryam (Elevate the
Mankind), our saints and sages walked the four corners
of the world. Our benign influence extended over vast
regions of the earth and our flag flew over many lands.
Pilgrims came from distant lands to have a glimpse of our
glory. Students came here from far and near to drink at
the pure and perennial springs of human knowledge.
Countless are the living and eloquent witnesses standing
in the form of temples and images, paintings and carvings,
languages and customs, epics and idylls, literature and art
to this day in all these countries, giving proof of that
conquering cultural potency of our race in those days.
The ‘ Crescent and Star 5 of the Muslims, too, is but a piece
of our Omkar -&> . It is not a fact that our ancestors
moved out of our country only after the advent of Buddha.
Our missionaries had reached the shores of America
even before. And Bouddha Bhikshus only followed that

Meeting the Historic Need

201

tradition. At home and abroad, we excelled as a virile, and
at the same time, a benevolent people.

Then, why this present-day despicable state of affairs,
in our country? How has the spectre of misery and vice
come to stalk this land of affluence and culture? Why has
Bharat, once the mother of the world which gave succour
and shelter to many a refugee race, become a mere mendicant
on the streets of the world ? Today we go about begging,
at the doors of all foreigners not only for food and money
but also for ideals and values of life. We are thereby
parading before the whole world the utter bankruptcy of
our intelligence and originality. What, then, is at the root
of all this abject destitution and debasement ?

Are Foreigners Responsible ?

Many of the thinkers of the last few decades concluded'
that our slavery for the past thousand years is the main cause-
for this degradation. They had read in history that the
Muslim invaders who settled down here as rulers had carried
out a systematic destruction of all our points of national
faith and honour. They had desecrated our womanhood,
demolished temples and places of pilgrimage and converted
large numbers to their faith at the point of sword or with
the lure of material pleasures. The new converts too,,
having lost their national moorings, perpetuated the same-
fanatic rule and the same heinous deeds of the foreign-
invader.

The English who came next were more shrewd and.
polished. They did not openly resort to desecration and
destruction. With their insidious propaganda they attempted’
to subvert the age-old faith and solidarity of the nation.
They introduced a particular system of education only
to de-nationaiise, de-culturalise and de-vitalise our people;
and thereby consolidate their empire. And our so-called
educated men fell an easy prey to their trap and began*
to ape the customs and thoughts of the white man
and to deride all that is our own. Having thus been uprooted

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Bunch of Thoughts

from the mother soil of our heritage, our nation began to
fade and wither away, leaving a bitter trail of vice and evil
behind.

Thus, having before them this lurid picture of the last
thousand years of foreign domination, those thinkers came
to the conclusion that it is the foreign rule alone which was
-at the root of all the present-day ills. Accordingly, they
•started efforts to throw off the foreign yoke. And it was quite
natural too.

But the matter does not rest at that. The question,
how the foreigners came to establish themselves here, remains.
Is it a fact that those invaders subjugated and ruled over
•so vast a country as ours on the sheer merit of their own
superiority? No. It is writ large on every page of our
history, that our people were incomparably superior to
the invaders in all the factors like population, armed forces,
■statesmanship, valour, wealth, wisdom etc., which normally
lead a people to sure victory.

greater in All Respects

We had a free and flourishing national life of our own
in our motherland. We had a unique social order and
highly evolved political institutions. Our statesmen of those
days had a thorough grasp of the principles of statecraft.
The Artha Skdstra of Kautilya is a volume which has few
equals in the entire world literature on politics. This small
treatise is a veritable treasure-house of thoughts of such
abiding and inherent worth as to cross all boundaries of clime
and time. And it was not mere dry knowledge encased
in a book but a living and practical guide in the actual
rstatecraft of those days. The striking power of our armies
was a terror to the invaders from outside. In fact, we had
previously put to rout the barbaric hordes of Shakas and
Hunas, and whoever remained over here was absorbed in our
all-embracing culture.

A similar fate overtook the so-called ‘World
Conqueror’, Alexander of Greece. We are taught in our

Meeting the Historic Need

203

history books, written by Westerners, that ‘Alexander the
Great’ gave back the kingdom he had conquered in our
country as a ‘gesture of generosity’. The same Alexander
who gloated over his atrocities in Persia and in his
intoxication of victory had committed all sorts of barbaric
excesses wherever he had stepped, becomes a generous man
immediately he steps on the soil of Bharat ! And we are
expected to believe in such a ‘history’! The world has yet
to see a generous Western conqueror. Even after nearly two
thousand years of the much boasted ‘Christian training’ the
‘generosity’ that is shown by them to their own brother-
Christians in the conquered nations of the West makes hair-
raising reading. The facts as revealed by history are
that Alexander could not withstand the shattering blows-
of even our small hill-chieftains and had to run for his
life. Even then, he could not escape the deadly arrow of
one of our heroes. Mortally wounded, and not willing to
risk a retreat by the same route, he resorted to another
route. But he could proceed only up to Iran where he
finally entered his grave. Another Greek invasion by
Seleucus was also effectively smashed by Chandragupta,,
the great Emperor of Magadha.

But, a House Divided

However, by about that time, a set-back in our
national solidarity was gradually creeping in. During the
long peace which succeeded the great battle of Mahdbharata,
the whole nation was lulled by a sense of security
into a sort of stupor. The cohesive impulse, resulting,
from an awareness of impending common danger, having
ceased to function for centuries, a gradual though
imperceptible falling away from a living consciousness of
one nation resulted in creating little independent princi-
palities and weakened the nation. Kingship became the
object of the people’s loyalty and supplanted the national
concept. Mutual jealousy and rivalry between the various-
kingdoms poisoned their relations, thus making our nation.

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Bunch of Thoughts

.-a house divided against itself. Kings were drunk with
their own personal glory and prestige and lost the power
to discriminate the friend from the foe. We forgot even
the first lessons of national defence that the enemy who
plundered a part of our land would one day plunder the
whole of it and that national freedom is indivisible.
We also forgot that the result of this would be disastrous
to one and all, that all things dear and sacred to
us, all our pelf and prosperity would be razed to
dust. Thus the enemies who trembled at our might
before, came here as ‘honoured guests’ later, and became
•our conquerors and rulers.

The painful story of how our country fell before the
Muslim invasion is before us. Within a century of the
•death of their Prophet, the Muslims had overrun almost
the whole of Southern Europe, Spain, Portugal and portions
-of Asia, and established themselves securely right up to
the Pacific Ocean. With a far-flung empire spread from
the Atlantic to the Pacific at their back, they turned their
.-greedy eyes towards our country. They tried to penetrate
.at two points, one through Sindh and the other through
.Afghanistan across the Himalayas into Punjab. But, even
with such a vast empire and huge armies at their command,
waves after waves of their invasion were effectively repulsed
for over two centuries by the small Hindu principalities
■defending our North-Western frontiers, thus proving
that Hindu military skill and valour were incomparably
-superior to the aggressive power of the Muslim hordes.
The reason, however, for the ultimate collapse of the Hindu
-resistance was that internal dissensions and treachery had
•enfeebled their ranks and the rest of the country had failed
to give them succour from time to time to carry on the battle
for the defence of motherland.

Nor did our country wake up and stand united at least
■after the first shock of Muslim invasion on our land. The
suicidal story of dissensions and betrayal continued. To
«Ghazni Mohammed, who had set out to loot and desecrate

Meeting the Historic Need

205 '

sacred Somnath, our own chieftains acted as guides and.
aides. And again, it was Jayachand who invited Mohammed
Ghori. Thus it was a Hindu king who helped an infidel
foe to establish a foreign reign for the first time in the
sacred capital of Hastinapur. The tribe of Jayachand fast
multiplied. Raja Mansingh became the corner-stone of
Akbar’s vast empire. It was he who came down upon
Rana Pratap who alone had kept the torch of freedom,
burning bright in those days. Mirja Raja Jayasingh,
Jasavantsingh and others, all Hindu generals, became the
powerful arms of Aurangzeb, the notorious anti-Hindu
fanatic. It was they who came to destroy Shivaji on behalf'
of Aurangzeb.

Our disintegration had gone to such an extent that
Bakhtyar Khilji who had set out eastward from Delhi, it is
said with just eighteen men, carried his sword right up to
Bengal, leaving behind a bitter trail of massacres, mass-
conversions, abduction of women, destruction of temples and
breaking up of kingdoms. The thousands of students and
teachers of the world-famous Nalanda University were all
mercilessly butchered by him. He put to sword the entire-
population of the city also. He made a bonfire of the
library there, the treasure-house of knowledge accumulated
over thousands of years. Finally he established his rule in
Bengal.

Manucci, an Italian officer in the army of Aurangzeb,
wrote in his diary after personally going round the country:
“If any invader descends today with an army of thirty
thousand through the Khyber pass, he can easily conquer and
rule over the whole of Hindusthan.” Such records and
instances are engraved on every page of our history of those
times telling the heart-rending story of internecine struggles,
betrayals and of helping the enemy to enslave our-
country.

The suicidal story of betrayal continued unabated even
after the English came. We had shut our eyes to the
lessons of Muslim invasion. Hindu captains and soldiers-

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Bunch of Thoughts

shed their blood and also the blood of freedom fighters to
make the British empire safe and secure. Our wealthy
merchants helped the British with money. All our resources,
in men, money and intellect, were placed at their feet. They
were harnessed to forge our own fetters. As an English
historian has written, “Even if all the able-bodied persons
in England had been armed and organised into an army,
they could not have conquered or much less ruled in peace
over India by themselves. It was in fact the local people
who, out of internal strifes, carved out the kingdom for us.
Even to this day they are content to remain as the docile
slaves of England.”

History Warns

The verdict of history is therefore too clear to be
mistaken. It was the absence of national consciousness and
the feeling of being the organic limbs of a single national
entity, and the resultant mutual hatred, discord, jealousy
and internecine quarrels to gain little selfish ends— well,
these have eaten into the vitals of our nation over the last
thousand years.

It was not the Muslims or the English who were our
enemies but we ourselves. The Gita says,

frr^Eft f^TT^r: i

(We are our own friends ; we are our own foes.) Alas, in our
case, the truth of the latter half has been proved !

So we say that it is of no use to curse the external
aggressors as being the cause of our degeneration and
destruction. After all it is in the nature of predatory nations
to overrun, plunder and destroy other weaker countries. If
a serpent bites a person, that is not its fault. That is in
its very nature. The fault lies with the person who does
not exercise caution and protect himself against the possible
danger. Unfortunately, during the last thousand years
of our history, even after repeated experiences of
disgraces and disasters, we failed to learn the one basic

Meeting the Historic Need

207

lesson that we alone are responsible for our downfall and
unless we eradicate that fatal weakness from ourselves we
cannot hope to survive as a nation.

Have we, at least now, learnt that lesson ? We nowadays,
hear that we have won freedom, that there has been all-round
awakening and therefore there is no need for worrying
ourselves about our past failings and so on. But is it
true that we won freedom solely on the strength of our
own valour and sacrifice? If it is a fact, then, how is it
that the British left Burma and Ceylon also where there
was no freedom struggle at all? How did Pakistan— a new
independent State— come into being without the least
sacrifice on the part of the Muslims? And why did our
leaders also acquiesce in it, against all their declarations
and pledges of independence of undivided Bharat ? The
fact is, the British had little energy left in them after the
blood-bath of the last world war to run a vast and far-
flung empire. They were not sure of the loyalty of the
Indian Army either. But the British, shrewd as they were,
managed to quit all these countries preserving their
goodwill and creating for themselves a permanent base in
the form of Pakistan. In an old book of Sir John Strachey,
the author had stated more than half-a-century ago that if
the British had perchance to quit India, they would do so
only after dividing it into ‘Hindu India’ and ‘Muslim India’.
The only difference now is that not only did our leaders
help the British in carrying out that plan but have gone
further and cut up the country into ‘Muslim India’ and.
‘ non-Muslim India ’ !

The Law of Cause and Effect

The formation of Pakistan has only proved that we-
have not as yet learnt the lesson of history and remedied
our fatal weakness.

At the time of the quitting of the British, the Hindus-
were too disorganised and the national leadership was too
weak to face even the small sporadic onslaught of the

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Bunch of Thoughts

Muslims and the machinations of the British. And Partition
was the result. History repeated itself. Alas, the only
lesson that we learn from our history is that we do not learn
anything from history ! Big slices of our motherland —
half of Punjab, half of Bengal, Sindh and the Frontier
Province— once again fell into enemy hands.

These parts were once the glory of our Hindu Nation.
Punjab is the birth place of Vedas — the holiest of our holy
heritage. Our great rishis meditated on the banks of the
Sindhu. Bengal has been the cradle-land of saints, poets
and revolutionaries. NWFP was our life-line of defence
for millennia. The writ of our free and powerful Hindu
'State ran all over there. But centuries ago those parts
fell to Muslim invasion. Later on, they shook off the
Muslim yoke, only to come under the rule of another enemy,
the British. Now they have once again fallen under the
Muslim heels.

Lakhs of Hindu brothers and sisters were butchered in
cold blood in these provinces after they were handed over
to the Muslim bondage in 1947. The honour of our
womanhood was trampled upon. Conversion at the point
of sword took place on a massive scale. The inhuman
atrocities which the Muslim hordes had perpetrated on the
Hindu people a thousand years ago were again re-enacted.
The horror is still continuing on the same scale with the
.same barbarity. Can there be a more crying evidence for
this than the continuous stream of tens of thousands of
'Our displaced brethren— the very images of human wrecks—
who pour into West Bengal day after day ?

The root cause of our national tragedy then, a thousand
years ago, and now, a thousand years after, is the same—
utter lack of organised and unified life among the Hindus,
the children of this soil. The law of cause and effect
'knows no limits of time and place. Every page of our
history of the past thousand years is a mute witness to
'this bitter truth operating on our national plane.

Let us now turn to the conditions in the areas

Meeting the Historic Need

209

which came into our hands when the British left. Is our
freedom and honour secure at least here?

The Tribe of Jayachands

After that first partition, there has been again partition
of Kashmir. At one time, our late Prime Minister
Pandit Nehru had even expressed his willingness to offer
the Pakistan-occupied-part of Kashmir to Pakistan in a
bid to solve the so-called Kashmir problem. The offer of
plebiscite in Kashmir was also mooted by our leaders.
What does this indicate? If there is an injury to a limb
of the body, then, should that particular limb be asked to
decide its fate by itself? On the contrary, is it not the
complete body which has to decide it? Similarly, if at all
there is to be a plebiscite, it should be conducted in the
whole of our country. Plebiscite in Kashmir alone would
only mean that the consciousness of the unity of our mother-
land has all but disappeared from our minds.

There are, in addition, serious cleavages developing
among our people on any and every issue, whether of
language, caste, sect or party. Everyone stands up and
says that he wants a state for his own language, a state
for his own sect, and if at all he is prepared to stay in the
Union, he wishes that it should be a loose federation with
greater and greater powers for his state and the Central
authority prevailing only in name.

The same curse of mutual hatred and jealousy, which
turned our national life into shambles during the last
thousand years, is continuing to play its death-dance under
the new garbs of province, party, language, community,
sect etc. Once a prominent leader of Andhra had
publicly declared that if a separate Andhra State was not
formed he would take the aid of Russia to achieve it. A
prominent Sikh leader once threatened that if Punjabi
Suba was not carved out then all the Sikhs would turn
Communists. With the Chinese armies poised on our
frontiers, such a statement could convey only one meaning.

210

Bunch of Thoughts

and that is, an invitation and an assurance to the aggressor
of help from inside, in exchange for his help in carving out
a separate state. Some years ago that leader was hobnob-
bing with Pakistan in a bid to get help from that country.
Can we say that the race of Jayachands and Mansinghs has
disappeared from this land?

History Repeating

The same fatal disease of the absence of national
consciousness which made us lose the power to discriminate
between friend and foe is continuing as before. Once in
Nagpur, there was a conference of some persons calling
themselves ncn-Brahmins. I was surprised to find Muslim
and Christian speakers also addressing the conference.
When I inquired of one of the organisers of the conference
he said, “ Well, they are also non-Brahmins ” ! How strange
that they could not recognise the simple fact that the Hindus,
whatever their denominations of caste or sect, formed a
single society and the Muslims and Christians belonged to
an altogether alien and even hostile camp !

It may be inconceivable, but is nevertheless a hard
fact, that during the 1957 elections, a' Muslim was elected
from the Ambala constituency in Punjab, where he was the
only Muslim voter and all others were Hindus who, hardly
a decade ago, had suffered unspeakable atrocities at the
hands of the Muslims. Such is the suicidal, self-oblivious
condition of our society.

No part of the country is free from these internecine
quarrels. Everywhere the ground is being prepared by our
own people for the enemies to step in and fortify their
positions. The anti-Bengali riots in Assam in July 1960
resulting in the exodus of Bengali Hindus has only profited
the Muslims by reducing the percentage of Hindus in that
vulnerable State. The mutual hatred and discord between
Assamis and Bengalis has only helped the Muslims to
intensify their atrocities on the Hindus in general in that
province.

Meeting the Historic Need

211

In fact, we lost Srihat (Sylhet) district to Pakistan only
because of the same Assami-Bengali discord. In 1947 there
was a plebiscite in Srihat to decide whether that district
was to remain in Bharat or go to Pakistan. The Hindus,
torn with Assami-Bengali quarrels and jealousies, did not
care to vote at all. But the Muslims being politically alert
had immensely mobilised their numbers from far and near
and had solidly voted for Pakistan. Such is the sordid story
of how we lost Srihat to Pakistan even though it had a Hindu
majority.

The Foreigner’s Trap

The utter lack of consciousness among our people of
belonging to one country and one culture has made them
a fertile field for any scheming foreigner to sow seeds of
disruption* Even the so-called intelligentsia are easily swept
off their feet by such insidious propaganda. For example,
the movement for a separate Dravidanad owes its origin
to the scheming brain of a foreigner. It was a foreign
Christian missionary, who first toured every town and village
in Tamilnad about eighty years ago and carried on an
incessant and vicious propaganda that Tamil culture, Tamil
language and everything Tamil differed fundamentally from
the rest of the Bharatiya culture, language etc., and that
the Tamilians formed an independent nation by them-
selves. He even gave a distorted interpretation to Tirukkural
to $make his poisonous theory palatable to the common
people. But the wonder is that even the so-called intellectuals
are not able to see the trap laid for them. In fact, some
of them seem to take a pride in playing the enemy’s game.
The arguments advanced by the so-called thought-givers
of the present movement are only parrot-like repetitions of
those of the foreign missionary.

A favourite argument in support of the Dravidanad
movement runs as follows: “Even in the past, though
Bharat was culturally one, there had always been several
states. So what harm is there, if now too, we form ourselves

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Bunch of Thoughts

into a separate state in the interest of our material
welfare and at the same time continue to consider Bharat
culturally and spiritually one, with our people going round
Bharat for pilgrimage etc., as before?” It is true that in
the past there were many small principalities, though we
have remained culturally one throughout. But it is also
equally true that there had always been an irresistible
tendency among the prominent rulers of the land to bring
the whole country under one administrative unit. The
Edjasuya and the Ashivamedha Yagnas had but one motive
and that was to bring the whole of Bharat under the supreme
political authority of a single Chalcravarti. The performer
of these Yagnas had no selfish motives such as exploitation or
suppression of the people in other kingdoms. He would
only demand the allegiance of the smaller principalities to one
supreme central authority. For the rest, he would leave
them in peace as before.

Moreover, just as history has recorded the existence of
several states, it has also recorded the bitter truth that it
was the existence of so many smaller principalities, which,
in course of time turned mutually exclusive and hostile,
that paved the way for the foreign invaders to subjugate
the entire country, including all such states, for the last one
thousand years and more. History has amply proved that
the fortunes of any one part of the country are inseparably
linked with those of the rest of the country. And especially,
when material welfare is the only incentive, as in the case
of the demand for a separate Dravidanad, some foreign power
is bound to make it a pawn in its hands by throwing material
baits. That would result, as in the past, in the ruination of
not only the rest of Bharat but of that so-called Dravidanad
itself.

The Poisonous Seed

That the framers of our present Constitution also were
not firmly rooted in the conviction of our single homogeneous
nationhood is evident from the federal structure of our

Meeting the Historic Need

213

Constitution. Our country is now described as a Union of
States. Those that were merely provinces in the former
set-up are now given the status of States, with many
exclusive powers. In fact, it was the fragmentation of our
single national life in the past into so many exclusive
political units that sowed the seeds of national disintegration
and defeat. The present federal structure has in it the
same seeds of disruption, which are already sprouting in
the form of conflicts between States on boundary issues,
allocation of river waters etc. All the quarrels have now
assumed a high ‘status’ and are officially termed as
‘boundary disputes’, ‘river water disputes’ etc., as if they
are disputes between two sovereign independent countries!
One of the leaders of Maharashtra once stated that he had
no time or desire to think of the Chinese aggression on our
borders so long as the Mysore-Maharashtra border dispute
was not settled to his satisfaction !

Even during the present times of serious food crisis,
the venomous fangs of provincialism have, instead of
withdrawing in the face of dire misery of the millions
thrown into the jaws of starvation, only injected a further
dose of poison into the body-politic. In 1963-64, Madhya
Pradesh and Punjab had a surplus stock of wheat. But
those State Governments were not prepared to give it to
their neighbouring States. Newspapers had reported that
in Punjab the surplus wheat had begun to rot and had
to be used as fodder for the cattle. But the Punjab
Government was not prepared to spare a single grain
to the neighbouring starving State of U. P. It was only
when the Centre brought pressure upon the Punjab Government
that it agreed to give one-fifth of what U. P. had
asked for. That was also not as a help to the suffering
neighbour but only in return for liquor and sugar which
XJ. P. had earlier in retaliation refused to supply to
Punjab ! Wheat can come to our doors from America,
some ten thousand miles away from our shores, but it
cannot reach from a surplus State to the neighbouring

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Bunch of Thoughts

starving State in our own country ! What a shame f

Recently, the Election Commission has evolved a new
formula for recognising political parties. The system of
recognising parties on a nationwide basis has been given
up in favour of recognition on State basis. It only
indicates that the mental working of the persons at the
helm of affairs is dominated by the consciousness of
separateness of ‘State’ units and not of the indivisible
unity of the entire nation. On the one hand, they pass
resolutions on ‘national integration’ and, on the other, in
the actual conduct of national affairs, frame policies that
strike at the very concept of national unity!

These are all ominous straws in the wind. And the
greatest danger is yet to come. The poisonous theory of
linguistic states has aggravated the claims for ‘right of
self-determination’ and ‘right of secession’. It may be
that in our present Constitution the right of secession is
not conceded. But let us not forget that the ruling
Congress party has committed itself long back to that
principle which in fact sowed the seed for the partition of
our motherland. It is also a fact that Congress has not
till today repudiated that previous resolution. With the
same Congress leadership continuing and witht he tempo of
provincial and linguistic jealousies and hatred increasing, a
day may come when the Constitution also will be suitably
amended to incorporate the right of secession. Already in
the case of Berubari we have seen the Constitution being-
amended to empower the Parliament — which in fact means
the ruling party — to give away parts of our motherland
to foreign States.

With such amendments that strike at the very heart
of the Constitution coming up every now and then, people
are exhorted to pledge themselves to uphold the sanctity
of the Constitution and the integrity of the country ! And
who are those that administer the pledge? The determined
disruptors of the Constitution and the ‘partition experts’
of our country! Can mockery go further?

Meeting the Historic Need

215

With such germs of disintegration eating into the vitals
of our nation even today, will it be safe to assume that the
root disease, which resulted in our misery and ignominous
slavery in the past and which has today taken a more terrible
form than ever before, will not nibble away our present
freedom in course of time?

The Basic Cure

Under these conditions, what is the best type of service
that we can render to society? Obviously, it is to remove
this basic disease of the loss of national consciousness and
cohesion and build a strong, well-organised, self-conscious
and self-sustaining national life. Then alone will our
independence remain firm and secure. It would be futile to
expect to go on enjoying fruits only ignoring the roots.
For some time, no doubt, the tree gives fruits even if it is
infected with disease. But those fruits will be unhealthy,
dry and tasteless. And so is the fruit of independence that
we have got today, exhibiting various types of diseases.
The reason is that the national roots have not gone deep
into the minds and hearts of our people. If we continue to
neglect the roots, after a time, even those fruits will disappear
with only the trunk of the tree standing dry and bare. If
we take care of the roots, fruits will take care of themselves.
There is no need to borrow fruits from outside and stick
them on to the tree. We should, therefore, strive to deepen
our national roots so that we can stand free and erect amidst
all tempests of the world.

How is this to be done? Can it be done by establishing
new industries or by economic planning? No. The patient,
if his internal disease is to be cured, needs medicine and not
things like dainty dishes and drinks. In that weak condition,
he will be unable even to drive away a dog which may
happen to raid and eat away all that is served to him. The
fate of our body-politic is not different. Unless our society
is cured of its internal malady of disunity and self-forgetfulness
and made nationally alert and organised, it remains incapable

216

Bunch of Thoughts.

of enjoying any type of prosperity in the world. Without
this prerequisite, any attempt to achieve mere material glory
may even turn out to be a curse rather than a service to
society. History tells us that it was boundless affluence that
attracted the barbaric hordes of invaders to our land. We
had not the organised strength to protect it and as a result
we find ourselves in the present predicament of abject poverty
and misery, having lost all that glory to those depredators.

We have therefore to resolve to eradicate that basic
malady by making our mother-society once again united,
organised, vigilant and resurgent with an intense spirit of
national consciousness and cohesion. To that end, let us
approach every son of this soil with the message of one
united nationhood and forge them all into a mighty organised
whole with bonds of mutual love and discipline. Such an
alert, organised and invincibly powerful national life alone
can hope to stand with its head erect in the present turmoils
of the war- torn world.

XIV The Eternal Basis

Need for positive basis— Effects of reactionary
approach— Sangh for permanent organised life— Fate
of temporary movements; Congress — Nation in
drifting —The remedy— Red signal.

T HE work of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh started
with a very humble beginning. Steadily and gradually
it spread its work over the years and today we find the
Sangh branches working in full swing in all provinces of
our country. This constant growth, this steady expansion
has been an unfailing feature of the Sangh all through the
trials and turmoils of the external circumstances.

The Urge for Growth

The Sangh met with its first major trial within fifteen
years of its inception, in the sudden and unexpected death
of its founder, Dr. Hedgewar. Needless to say, the Doctor
was like the very life-breath of the organisation. He had
watered the tiny plant of the Sangh with his sweat and
blood. He had made of his life a burning lamp and it
burned to the last drop of oil. Such an indispensable and
incomparable leader had suddenly departed. The organisation
was yet in an infant stage. And many a well-wisher of the
Sangh was struck with grave apprehensions about its
9 217

218

Bunch of Thoughts

future. But to the surprise of all, the Sangh grew with
redoubled speed and vigour. Nor has its steady advance
diminished after the quitting of the British. To some this
appears to be a strange phenomenon. Puzzled, they ask
us, “Now that the British have left and we have become
free, where is the need for a separate organisation such
as the Sangh ? What role can it play now that we are
free?”

Our answer is, mere external conditions such as political
independence do not preclude the need for the organised
state of society. In fact, it is only a well-knit and powerful
society that can enjoy the fruits of a free, peaceful and
prosperous life. Organised life is as much an effective
weapon for a free nation to guard its freedom as for an
enslaved nation to shake off its fetters. An alert and

organised nation alone can check internal corrosions and
subversions, repel external aggressions and maintain its
integrity and freedom intact.

For an Abiding Basis

It is also well known that such an abiding, alert,
positive and organised state of society cannot be based on
mere antagonism to others. The reason for this is very
simple. Movements which start as reactions to outside
factors collapse to the ground no sooner the object of

their antagonism is removed. There is also another
important consideration. When the spirit of antagonism
rules our mind, we have perforce to think constantly of

those whom we oppose. And especially, we shall have to

ruminate over their evil acts and evil qualities. Our
shastras say that a man becomes what he thinks. It is the
continuous thought-processes that go to form the mental
texture and thus shape the personality of man. Any
attempt at reorganisation of our society on the basis of
hatred of the British or of the Muslims would therefore
be to court degeneration and disaster. For, that would
only pollute our minds by the constant remembering of

The Eternal Basis

219

their heinous crimes. Have we no positive, life-giving and
sublime ideals at all to meditate upon and fashion our lives
after, that we should instal a wicked aggressor in our hearts
as a point of meditation ?

It is true that sometimes our Sangh workers too
refer to incidents involving Muslims and British. But
that is only to draw attention to the lessons we have
to learn from history, to show that we alone are responsible
for our downfall. It was in fact the strange phenomenon
of a small nation such as England ruling over a big
country like ours from a distance of six thousand miles that
made our revered founder, even as a boy of eight, to wonder
and ponder over it. And it was after mature and deep
contemplation regarding the root-cause of our slavery as
also the right and positive approach to remove it, that
he started the Sangh.

Effects of Reactionary Approach

But, somehow, most of our leaders fell a prey to sheer
antagonism either to the British or to the Muslims, with
the result that they have become either Anglicised or
Muslimised. For example, some extremist Hindu bodies
came into existence in our country to counteract the
growing violence and depredations of Muslims and to put a
check on their appeasement in the political field. They
recounted again and again the harrowing tales of the
blood-curdling massacres, forcible conversions, raping of
women, desecration of temples and all such atrocities
perpetrated by the Muslims ever since they stepped on
this soil.

There is a revealing incident which I came across during
the anti-cow-slaughter campaign. I met a Hindu leader
of great repute and scholarship known for his fiery patrio-
tism. During our talk he casually asked, “What harm is
there if a Hindu takes to beef?” I was simply stunned to
hear such words from that person, whom I hold in great
respect. What must have been the reason for such an

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utterance which even the most depraved Hindu would
shudder to think of? The reason is, the continuous thinking
about the Muslims and their vices had left their deep
impressions upon his mind and made him culturally a Muslim,
though he remained politically a Hindu.

It is this atmosphere of reactionary mentality that makes
people view the Sangh also in the same light. Once we
had gone to a place to start our work. The gentlemen
of the town confronted us with the question, “Well, where
is the need for Sangh in our town ? There are no Muslims
here.” [ replied, “We have come here to organise Hindus
and not Muslims. I hope you are all Hindus. How are we
concerned whether Muslims reside here or not?”

Sign of Living Society

It is on this reactionary background that people say
that there is now a change in the circumstances because
the British have left this country and therefore there is no
need for an organisation of this type. We, on the other
hand, view the problem differently. We say, the Hindus
were here and continue to be here. They were disunited
and are still disunited. We see the same disintegrated, mute
Hindu Society letting itself to be trampled upon without
a murmur of protest. And when it does speak, it is
with so many voices that what it says sounds gibberish.
As such, we see absolutely no change in the situation.
Suppose there is a man suffering from typhoid during an
epidemic. Will the doctor treating that patient lose the
incentive when the health officer of the town declares that the
epidemic has ended? Similarly, do we not see the malady
of disunity still scourging the body of this ancient and
great society ? How then can we afford to stop administering
the proper medicine ?

Our duty, therefore, to make our society united, orga-
nised and mighty is as much before us today as at any
time before. It is our dharma to see that our society,
which we consider as our great mother, is made powerful.

The Eternal Basis

221

great and happy. It is this innate love and adoration for
our own people, this positive faith in our own nation! being
that has been the constant urge for all our actions. True
love of that type is not dependent upon external situations.
Nor is it born out of them. It takes its roots deep in our
hearts reminding us of the duty towards our nation every
moment of our life. It makes us conscious that we belong
to this great and sacred motherland, that we owe a deep
debt of gratitude to her and that every action of ours must
be a dedication in her cause.

Hinduism, which has been our sheet-anchor, fosters
this pure and all-embracing love, free from any spirit of
reaction. We of the Sangh, who have been born and
bred in that heritage, only act. We do not react. In fact,
it is the nature of the insignificant and material things to react
strongly towards momentary heat and cold. But healthy
living human beings are not overcome by vagaries of
weather. They maintain a steady temperature of their own
which even the extreme variations of weather cannot
disturb. In fact, they fall down lifeless whenever their
bodies no longer maintain that normal temperature. It is
therefore that we have been constantly keeping before our
mind’s eye the vision of an organised society which would
not stray from its chartered course by changes in external
circumstances.

Realising the Vision in Practice

It is because the Sangh is firmly founded on this
unreactionary, positive and abiding faith in our own
national being, that it is calmly and steadily growing from
strength to strength undisturbed by fleeting changes in the
external atmosphere. It is this vision of an everlasting,
powerful and glorious condition of an organised social life
that forms the perennial spring of inspiration for a
swayamsevak to take to the work of Sangh as his life-
mission devoid of all traces of selfishness. In fact the
swayamsevak experiences the thrill of joy and inspiration

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Bunch of Thoughts

in the day-to-day work of the Sangh, where he sees the
vision of his dreams realised in actuality, though on a
miniature scale. He is spurred on to greater effort to
fulfil the mission.

This is the unique feature of Sangh work, wherein the
‘means’ and the ‘end’ have coalesced. The ‘end’ i.e.,
the ideal of an organised society, is being gradually
realised day after day in practice by the ‘means’, the
day-to-day process of bringing together and moulding
persons for an organised life. This is in true conformity
with the teachings of our philosophy in respect of devotees.
To a devotee, devotion is both the end and the means —
ewayam phalaroopatd. Similarly, the work of our organisation
born out of intense devotion to our society is self-inspiring
and self-sustaining. It is this perfect concentration on its
chosen path born out of a thorough grasp of the principles
that form the grass-roots of an eternally powerful and self-
sustaining national life that has made this organisation
invincible and ever-expanding.

An Opposite Instance

Let us take the example of an opposite type which
may help us to appreciate this point better. It is the
example of an organisation which had kept before itself a
temporary objective. The Indian National Congress, the
oldest political body in our country today, had kept before
itself the aim of driving out the British. Now that the
British have gone from this land, the aim of Congress has
been fulfilled. It was precisely for this reason that Mahatma
Gandhi, who was the mainstay of that organisation for about
twenty-five years and had a thorough insight into its working,
advised its disbandment soon after the British left. But, as we
know, man develops attachment for name and form. And so,
most of his followers could not relish the idea of disbanding
Congress. Probably the taste of political power also must
have added its share to their sticking on to that name and
form even by flouting the express will of their master.

The Eternal Basis

223

The result is, that having nothing positive to fulfil, Congress
has rapidly drifted and degenerated from all the ideals
which it professed during its struggle with the British. The
principles of truth, non-violence, character, patriotism have
all vanished into thin air. Although the motto remains
the same, its content has totally disappeared.

Falsehood struts about masquerading as truth. The
Government had been aware, on their own admission, of
the Chinese aggression on our northern frontiers since 1954.
But they suppressed the truth and denied it and derided
others who spoke about it and continued to paint before
the country the rosy picture of ‘Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai\
Could falsehood go further?

So far as ‘non-violence’ is concerned, of course, our
leaders preach peace and non-violence to the whole world,
but within our own country there has been more violence
done to our countrymen in the form of arrests, lathi-charges
and shootings on those whom they consider as their
political opponents than even during the days of British
domination. And as for violence in speech, there appears
to be no limit to it. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru once publicly
appealed to all political leaders in the country to be
restrained in their criticisms. And it was he who con-
demned those who differed from his political views as
gaddar i.e., traitors !

Decadence in character has become the order of the
day. Corruption and nepotism have become rampant.
A separate department has been started to check corruption
in various departments. But it is found that another
department is required to check corruption in that anti-
corruption department itself ! It will thus go on ad
infinitum. An acquaintance of mine who was once a big
Congress worker came to see me. He bewailed the serious
loss to the Exchequer occasioned by the maintenance of so
many departments to check black-marketing, smuggling,
corruption and so on. He suggested that the Sangh should
take up the task of purifying all such persons responsible

224

Bunch of Thoughts

for these evils. I told him, “I welcome your suggestion.
But will you enlighten me as to from whom I should
begin?” He also understood what I said, because he knew
very well that this corrosion had entered the marrows of
even the topmost men.

The New Craze

When we come to see the present-day plight of the
ideas of patriotism and self-sacrifice which spurred our
leaders to action during the anti-British movement, we see
that their meanings have all changed. The unity of the
motherland is no more a living concept for them. Eminent
leaders have begun to bless and encourage movements
intended to break up our country. Sri C. Rajagopalachari
has stated that he would prefer partition of the country
to what he calls ‘ imposition of Hindi * . The idea of
sacrifice has been replaced by one of ‘cashing on past
sacrifices’. Everywhere there is a craze for show of
sacrifice rather than its real essence. It is like the story
of a pandit who had gone to perform Satyandrdyana Pooja.
He stealthily knocked off a valuable jewel during the
Pooja but came back all the way to return a small piece
of thread to that house and duly impressed the members
of the household with his high sense of honesty !

This craze for show devoid of the true spirit of
sacrifice has made all our big plans a mockery. The desire
for name and fame passes off as service. To give a funny
instance some years back there were floods in the river
Ganga inundating parts of Kashi. One of the ministers
who happened to be there at the time thought of paying
a visit to the affected areas. He went in a car up to the
edge of the flood waters. There he stopped and asked
his secretary where the cameraman was. But somehow
that ‘important point’ had been forgotten. The car was
sent back to bring the professional photographer. It was
only after he came and had taken a couple of photographs
of the minister standing in knee-deep water in the act

The Eternal Basis

225

of 4 flood-relief work’ that all of them returned merrily
in the car with the satisfaction of having done their
best for the flood victims!

The Shifting Loyalties

Those persons who once spoke of dedication in the
cause of the nation are now chasing the shadow of their
own glorification. Self-conceit has taken the place of self-
surrender. Their thoughts, words and deeds have all
become egocentric. Some years back, when Pandit Nehru
visited the Naga Hills, some people wanted to present him
with a memorandum in the public meeting demanding
a separate independent Naga State. But the local authorities
did not allow it. As a protest, about three thousand Nagas
rose in a body and left the meeting when Pandit Nehru was
about to address them. Pandit Nehru took it as a presonal
affront and began to say that the foreign Christian missions
in this country were playing a dirty anti-national game
and so on. Till then he used to go about praising their
"humanitarian’ activities and even proclaiming that it
was a great honour done to our country when some local
bishop was made a cardinal !

Having lost the supreme and dominant note of selfless
devotion to the nation as a whole, smaller and lower
objects have come to occupy its place in our heart.
Discordant notes of attachment to a party, to a language,
to a province, to a caste or sect have torn our national
life to shreds. And the tragedy is that it is the ‘top-
ranking leaders’ who take the lead in all such disruptive
tactics to serve their own ends. The experts committee
which was formed to prepare the Second Five Year Plan
exposed the real motive behind that plan saying that they
were in a way forced to draft the plan in that fashion
as against their considered views because of the political
pressure brought upon them.

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Bunch of Thoughts

Drifting and Drifting !

This is how our people are drifting under all tall talk
of progress. We do not know where we are going. Is
there today anything that can be pointed out as the essence
of our own national life? Our way of life, our method
of education, our mode of behaviour, our way of dress,
our way of building houses, towns and cities and all such
elements of our national ethos have undergone such an
awful change that we do not stop for a moment to consider
whether this abject imitation of others is not a humiliation
of our national pride, a sure sign of losing our national
identity and drifting into intellectual slavery.

For example, our leaders have set up a new flag for
our country. Why did they do so? It is just a case of
drifting and imitating. How did this flag come into being?
During the French Revolution, the French put up three
stripes on their flag to express the triple ideas of ‘equality’,
‘fraternity’ and ‘liberty’. The American Revolution
inspired by similar principles took it up with some
changes. The three stripes therefore held a sort of
fascination for our freedom fighters also. So, it was taken
up by the Congress. Then it was interpreted as depicting
the unity of the various communities — the saffron colour
standing for the Hindu, the green for the Muslim and the
white for all the other communities. Out of the non -Hindu
communities the Muslim was specially named because in
the minds of most of those eminent leaders the Muslim
was dominant and without naming him they did not think
that our nationality could be complete ! When some persons
pointed out that this smacked of a communal outlook, a
fresh explanation was brought forward that the ‘saffron’
stood for sacrifice, the ‘white’ for purity and the ‘green’
for peace and so on. All these interpretations were discussed
in the Congress Committees during those days. Who
can say that this is a pure and healthy national out-
look? It was just a politician’s patchwork, just political
expediency. It was not inspired by any national vision or

The Eternal Basis

227

truth based on national history and heritage. The same
flag has been taken up today as our State flag with

only a minor modification. Ours is an ancient and great

nation with a glorious past. Then, had we no flag of our
own? Had we no national emblem at all these thousands
of years? Undoubtedly, we had. Then, why this void,
this utter vacuum in our minds ?

Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and

heterogeneous piecing together of various articles from
various Constitutions of Western countries. It has

absolutely nothing which can be called our own. Is there
a single word of reference in its guiding principles as to
what our national mission is and what our keynote in
life is ? No ! Some lame principles from the United Nations
Charter or from the Charter of the old League of Nations
and some features from the American and British Cons-
titutions have been just brought together in a mere
hotchpotch. Theodre Shay in his 4 The Legacy of the
Lokamanya ’ says, 44 Strangely absent from the Preamble is
reference to concepts like Swaraj, Dharmarajya and the
integration of the purpose of the state with the purpose of
life. In other words, there is no reflection of Indian
precepts or political philosophy in the Indian Constitution. **
We also see so many slogans being coined on the eve
of every election or even every year, slogans culled from
foreign theories which had already been long ago exploded.
They say, we are now fighting for 4 Socialistic doctrine ’ !
There is now so much conformity to the word of the leader
in Congress and much spirit of servility to the European
ideas that even the little Congress worker goes about
re-echoing the same words, 4 Socialism ‘Socialistic pattern
of society’, 4 Democratic Socialism ’ and all such things to
the extent of claiming that this had been the settled policy
of Congress right from 1885 I

At times we drift towards America and at times
towards Russia. Where is all this going to lead us except
to moral and intellectual annihilation ? Why are we

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Bunch of Thoughts

drifting? Because we are not standing upon our own legs.
Those who have lost their own pedestal needs must drift.
A tree which has been uprooted and caught in a flood is
driven hither and thither by every current of water. Our
entire national life has been uprooted and therefore there
is no other go but to drift. And drifting always means
going from a higher level to a lower level, ultimately
sinking into a bottomless abyss. That is the unfortunate
condition in which we find ourselves today.

Lesson of History

To prevent this drifting, there is only one remedy.
And that is, to reawaken in ourselves the consciousness
that we have our own positive foundations and we have
our own roots penetrating deep into the soil of our national
ideals and aspirations, history and heritage. It is only a
positive and living build-up of an organisation of the type
of the Sangh, capable of embracing all of our people in a
loving and eternal brotherhood and making them intensely
conscious of their national destiny that can effectively
check the present rot of selfishness, dissensions and vulgar
imitations born out of drifting.

So we can truly say that the necessity of the Sangh is
felt much more keenly today than when it was first started.
The present-day conditions do not admit of any sense of
complacency. The circumstances inside and outside the
country are explosive. We have heard that eternal vigilance
is the price of liberty. Let us, at least now, take a lesson
from our history. Prithviraj, who could put to rout the
hordes of Mohammed Ghori several times before, was defeated
when he gave himself up to enjoyment in the company
of his newly wedded wife Samyogita at a time when the
enemy was pounding at the gates of Delhi.

The Bed Signal

Can we honestly say that our nation is so strong-willed
and well-organised that we can confidently face all dangers

The Eternal Basis

229

to our free and prosperous existence ? Do we, for instance,
see the glow of manliness and idealism in the eyes of our
youth ? Do we not, on the other hand, see our youth chasing
vulgar shadows of foreign fashions and wallowing in pleasures
of the senses? I had once an occasion to visit a physical
training camp conducted by the Congress. Boys and girls
were both participating in the activities. I asked the organiser
of the camp whether it would not have been better if girls
had not been allowed there. He frankly confessed that in
that case very few young men would have come ! There was
a Youth Conference organised at Lucknow. Having heard
the first-hand report of that Conference from our friends
there, I felt that it was not a conference having any
educative value but only an unholy centre for spreading
horrible immorality.

No nation can hope to survive with its young men given
over to sensuality and effeminacy. That is the surest sign
of decay and destruction, howsoever prosperous and mighty
the nation may be for the time being. An American
correspondent had once come to meet me to know which
way the sympathies of our Sangh lie in the present tug-of-war
between America and Russia. But we stand firm on our
own feet and do not allow ourselves to be dragged either
way. He asked me, “ What is your opinion about the present-
day America ? ” I replied, “ America is moving fast on the
road to self-destruction. Just see your own clothes. The
loose fashionable garments that you wear and the comb
in your pocket betray the effeminate nature of the average
American today. In the First World War, the Generalissimo
of the 4 Allied Forces’ was Marshal Foch, a Frenchman.
Such was the heroic state of that nation at that time that
they fought the Germans with grim resolve and won the
war ultimately. They even pocketed a sizable portion of
Germany. But after the victory, Frenchmen succumbed to
sensuality and enjoyment. They lost themselves in drinking,,
singing and dancing with the result that in spite of their
huge military machine and their formidable c Maginot line %

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Bunch of Thoughts

France collapsed within fifteen days of the German onslaught
during the Second World War. The sudden and total collapse
of France was due to effeminacy which had sapped the energy
of the heroic manhood of France. After the war. Marshal
Petain, the old French general, stated that France was
defeated not on the battle-fields but in the ball-rooms of
Paris. I sincerely hope that America will wake up in time
and stop this internal corrosion of its young manhood.”

In our country also the conditions are not different.
The 4 modem fashion ’ of young men is to appear more and
more feminine. In dress, in habits, in literature and in
every aspect of our day-to-day life ‘ modernism * has come
to mean effeminacy. 4 Sex 9 has become the one dominating
theme of all our 4 modern 9 literature. History of countries
the world over has time and again shown that sex-dominated
literature has been an unfailing precursor to the ruin of
nations and civilisations.

This, in short, is the internal picture of our national life
under ‘ freedom \ It is a red signal which we can ignore

only at our peril. Under these conditions, it is only an

organisation such as the Sangh dedicated to forge our

people into a pure, holy, benevolent and organised life*

breathing the spirit of sacrifice and heroism, and based on
the positive and abiding foundation of our ancient and glorious
nationhood, that can be relied upon to protect and rejuvenate
our nation. And it is the call of this yet unfulfilled mission
that is the motive force behind the evergrowing and ever-
-expanding work of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

XV

The Elixir of National Life

/. war u 4

Strong devours weak — Great fact of world history — The
present world picture-— Slogans change , fact remains —
Mirage of mutual friendship — Friendship of strong and
weak — Strength for peace and freedom.

W E, the children of this great and ancient nation, naturally
desire that our nation should scale ever new heights
of prosperity, glory and honour in this world. This is a
very legitimate desire, no one can deny it. However, life
is not all smooth-sailing in this hard world. Even in the
fulfilment of just and legitimate desire one is confronted
with impediments and challenges from the outside world.
If we have to bring to life the dream of our national glory,
we have to assess and analyse the nature of this challenge
and prepare ourselves to meet it effectively.

The Great Fact

The world, as it obtains today, is divided into groups
of human beings called e nations ’ which are constantly
competing with one another for greater power and prosperity
and greater domination over wider territories of the globe.

231

232

Bunch of Thoughts

This has been the unfailing feature of human history right
from its beginning down to present times. In all these
millennia the slogans have changed, but not this basic fact.
The mask has changed but not the spirit.

In earlier days, it was imperialism in its unabashed
naked form trying to spread its political tentacles over
others. Today, the spirit of domination has taken on
many more garbs, more alluring and more dangerous than
the previous ones. They are sometimes economic and
sometimes ideological in appearance. But the spirit of world
domination is there as strong as ever. When one nation
wants to dominate over another, a conflict is inevitable.
Therefore, we see in this wide world that there is never any
real peace. In fact, the world is always in a state of
intermittent war. And peace is only an interval between two
wars. Conflict is in the very nature of mankind as it is
constituted today.

Even so great a person as Sri Krishna, who left no stone
unturned to avoid an internecine war between the Pandavas
and Kauravas and bring about a just and peaceful settlement,
failed in his mission. War became inevitable and Sri Krishna
tells Arjuna:

c3T sftsrr: If

(I am the Power of destruction , come to stay these men here „
Even without thee all the warriors , standing arrayed in hostile
ranks, shall he destroyed.) It only means that death and
destruction are in the very nature of this world. This is
the great fact of human life to which it is no use shutting
our eyes.

Conflicts are going on. Sometimes there is actual
clash of arms, spilling of blood. At other times there is
the ‘cold war’, the diplomatic persons of one country trying
to out-manoeuvre the others. Whatever the strategy, the
basic rule of relations between nations is the law of the
jungle— the strong feeding upon the weak and getting

The Elixir of National Life— I

233

stronger. It is one of jeevo jeevasya jeevanam , of mdtsya
nyaya , the big fish devouring the small fish and becoming
bigger at the cost of the smaller.

The World of Reality

Just look at the history of Europe. When the
countries of Europe became powerful in the wake of the
Industrial Revolution, each one of them stretched its.
aggressive arms to grab other countries. When Spain
became strong it carried its sword to America. Portugal*
in its days of power, spread its tentacles of destruction right
up to Goa in our country. Whenever France became
powerful, it brought under its heels the smaller countries-
of Europe. The history of England which spread its empire
over distant corners of the globe is only too well known.
The story of Germany too is not different. It plunged the
world in two world wars to satiate its aggressive spirit.
Italy, when it felt strong enough, grabbed Abyssinia.
Now, Russia, having emerged powerful after the Second
World War, has devoured countries like Finland, Poland,.
Czechoslovakia, Balkan States and even half of Germany.
Under the very nose of UNO, it massacred thousands of
Hungarian freedom fighters and crushed Hungary under
its iron heels. Now Russia is prowling about all over the
world, in search of its future prey. China, even at this,
early stage of its growing power, has already bared its.
claws in Korea and Indo-China. It has already sat tight
upon Tibet, devoured parts of Ladakh and NEFA and
is now poised for a further drive into the Himalayan States.

Every time a war breaks out, the warlords say that it
is a war to end ali future wars! After witnessing the
horrors of the First World War, people the world over
prayed for peace and end of all wars. But within hardly
two decades, the world was drenched in the blood-bath of
another and a more terrible holocaust. And again after the
Second World War, mankind hoped and prayed for peace.
But what is the actual state of affairs now? Everywhere;

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Bunch of Thoughts

there are conflicts, sometimes flaring up into shooting war.
The whole of Africa is like the seething bowels of a volcano,
•erupting every now and then. In its surreptitious move to
turn Cuba into its missile base, Russia had pushed the world
to the very brink of world conflagration.

Slogans Change, Fact Remains

However, these conflicts and bloodshed are carried on
under various garbs. Today, for example, the most aggressive
and dangerous plans are being hatched under the cover of
Communism. Communism, be it remembered, was born
with the cry of revolt against domination of every kind.
The Communists in Russia and China rose in revolt against
their own kings and feudal chiefs, liquidated them and
assumed power. But in a short time, they too took to
the same path of imperialism, though under the new slogan
of 4 liberating the people of the world from the clutches
•of imperialists and capitalists \ They even call their aggressive
armies as 4 liberation armies’ .

What is the story of China and the various East
European countries like Hungary, Poland etc., ‘liberated’
by Russia? Those who visited China afterwards— and
who had the mental poise and courage to call a spade
a spade — had unequivocally stated that the average man
there seemed to scent danger all-round and did not appear
to be free in his behaviour. That was the result of
Russians and their local agents sitting in their secret nooks
•and comers of every department and dominating each
sphere of national life, its army, its navy, its air force,
its farming, scarcely coming out in the open but tightly
holding their overall supremacy.

Of course, some people were there in China who went
about singing the praise of ‘New China’, of ‘ the great leap ’
and ‘ our great brother Russia ’ and so on. Even in our
country, when the British were ruling, there were some
persons who went about the world saying that the British
rule was a Godsend, a boon, as if the British were

The Elixir of National Life— I

235

direct messengers of God, sent for our emancipation. We
will always find such slaves who extol to the skies their
masters. If the masters flog them they will praise the
strength of the masters and say, “What a fine whip he
has and how well he wields it” i Now, China is repeating-
the same story of ‘liberation’ in the case of Tibet.

America too stood up against the imperialistic tyranny
of Britain, overthrew its domination and established its
independence. The same America, may be with a view to
containing the rising danger of Communism, is now trying
to bring a large number of countries under its wing by
giving them economic aid and sometimes military aid too.
But as we know, arthasya purusho ddsah, wherever economic
aid comes some sort of mental enslavement also follows.
Thus we find in all such poor countries receiving the
American aid the imprint of American culture, corroding
their national ideals, traditions and originality in every
sphere of life.

Mirage of Mutual Friendship

What then is the way out to maintain our national
integrity and glory in this world of conflicts? Can we
depend upon the friendship and alliance of other nations?
Here too the lesson of world history affords us no streak
of hope. Friendship or hostility between any two nations
has never been a permanent feature. Nations change their
friends and foes as it suits their self-interest.

The story of the permutations and combinations in the
relationship between nations of Europe in the last few
centuries makes interesting reading. England and France
were bitter enemies for centuries. When France, under
Napoleon, posed a challenge to England, the latter-
developed friendly ties with Germany and crushed France.
Later, when Germany became too powerful, England and
France came togerther in both the world wars and crushed
Germany. In the beginning of the Second World War,
Russia remained neutral but later joined Germany to get a

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Bunch of Thoughts

share in the loot. But still later, England manoeuvred to
wean away Russia from Germany and Russia joined the
■camp of America, England and France. America, too,
during her struggle for independence, was hostile to

England but friendly to France. The picture changed
after a few years and again England became its friend.
Such has been the history of ‘mutual friendship’ between
nations on the face of the earth. Nor can we expect

-anything different so long as the spirit of self-aggran-
disement and domination rules the minds of nations So,
■to seek permanent security in the form of friendship with
-other nations would be just a delusion.

Friendship of Giant and Dwarf

Today the world appears to be torn into two power-blocs.
Seeing their power and splendour, and our own weakness
in comparison, there are some who advocate our joining

the one or the other bloc so as to be able to breathe

freely under its protective wings. But then, to remain
weak oneself and become an ally of the strong is also
not without its grave risks.

Once a giant and a dwarf became friends. They
embarked upon an adventure to a forest. There they found
a band of dacoits sharing among themselves the booty of a
vast amount of wealth. The giant put the dacoits to rout,
took all the wealth and returned. Unfortunately, in the
fury of the fight, the dwarf lost one of his hands. After
some time they again set out on another adventure. - This
time they came across a fort with people imprisoned and
tyrannised by a cruel despot. The giant killed the tyrant;
and the people out of gratitude chose him as their king
thereafter. This time the dwarf lost one of his legs. The
giant got a big fort and many dutiful subjects.

The dwarf, cursing his ill luck and envying the good
fortune of the giant, thought that something must be done
to gain some advantage for himself also. So he started on
his crutches along with the giant once again. As luck

The Elixir of National Life— I

237 '

would have it, they chanced to see a princess being carried
away on horseback by some miscreants. She was rescued and
taken to her father by the giant. Out of gratitude the king:
offered the princess to the giant in marriage along with his-
kingdom. The dwarf lost one eye in that * mercy * campaign.
The upshot was, the giant got two kingdoms, a princess for a.
wife and a vast store of wealth; and his friend, the dwarf,
lost one hand, one foot and one eye !

The moral is too evident. The friendship between the-
strong and the weak is bound to result in the strong taking,
away the profits leaving the weak to suffer the losses. That
is what we witness in the international field also. The
powerful nations build their strategic frontiers away from
their own national frontiers with a view to carry on the
war with the enemies on others’ soil and avoid the calamities
of war on their own soil. We see the Russian armies-
spread out in distant countries. We have seen the American
armies fighting in Korea, in Viet Nam. The smaller countries,
thereby become war-fields for the trial of strength of bigger
powers, and the local people will be treated by them as so *
much cannon-fodder.

Strength for Peace

When we thus read the world correctly, we are forced'
to arrive at the simple conclusion that the only basis
for our free and prosperous national life is invincible
national strength — a strength that will strike terror into
the hearts of aggressive powers and make other nations
seek our friendship. Strength is the very elixir of national
life.

In fact, to remain weak is to extend invitation to
aggression and depredation by stronger foreign powers.
It is the weak who are thus responsible for the disturbance-
of peace in the world. Churchill called the Second World
War an ‘unnecessary war’, as England and France could
easily have held Germany in check in the initial stages and
avoided war if only they had displayed the nerve and

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Bunch of Thoughts

strength to do it. But they remained unprepared and weak and
thus indirectly fanned the German war-spirit. To be strong is
the real path to peace.

Even today we see that because America and Russia
are equally strong neither is prepared to risk a global war.
Both are in possession of world-destructive missiles and
both are aware that neither would survive a nuclear war.
The Cuba episode holds a great lesson for us. Russia
attempted to sabotage the security of America by secretly
turning Cuba into its missile base. But the drastic and
timely action on the part of America checked the Russian
adventure and saved the world from a future world
conflagration.

But this does not mean that the weaker countries are
safe or that wars have come to an end. Only the final
nuclear showdown is being avoided and postponed to a
future date. All other things are going on as before. We
often hear the 4 wise men ’ of our country assuring us that
we need not be worried about any foreign power risking a
war with us as that would involve the whole of humanity
in a nuclear conflagration. But it would be very naive
on our part to believe that others are as much afraid
of war as we are. Even without a formal declaration of
war, enemies invade and occupy territories. There is the
glaring instance of our own country losing large chunks
of territory to Pakistan in Kashmir and Kutch and to
China in Ladakh and NEFA, all without a declaration of war !
The same story is being repeated in Indo-China and other
places even today.

XV

The Elixir of National Life

_ 2 . the ultimate mnctic-i

Perils of high platitudes — Fate of Panchsheel—Myth of
international prestige — World worships strength — Our
preverted notions — Non-violence or imbecility ?— Our
great examples — The right philosophy — Real source of
strength-

N OWADAYS in our country we hear a lot about ‘ non-
alignment’, ‘dynamic neutrality’ etc., as if they are
our life-saving principles. But will they really help the
weak? In the event of an attack by an aggressive power,
how are we going to save ourselves? Shall we not have to
throw ourselves into the arms of one or the other power-bloc
for our protection? Then, that would indeed be the
‘dynamic neutrality’ of a football which is ‘impartial’ and
‘neutral’ by itself but is also ‘dynamic’ being kicked about
from one side to the other! Moreover, in the event of a
wider conflict, the bigger powers will care two hoots for the
neutrality of the weak.

For Real Neutrality

During the First World War, Germany chose the
plains of the neutral Netherlands to cross its armies into-

239

240

Bunch of Thoughts

France in order to avoid the hazardous mountainous
border between Germany and France. Germany never
bothered itself about the protestations of neutrality by
Belgium and Holland (the Netherland countries) but
marched its armies and trampled their neutrality under
its military boot. If these countries too were armed to the
teeth, then Germany would not have dared to incur their
wrath.

The example of Switzerland affords a striking contrast.
During the last war, Switzerland maintained its strict
neutrality. The country is comparatively poor, but the
people’s heart is vibrant with intense patriotic zeal,
national pride and an indomitable spirit of freedom. The
international rule is neutral countries cannot be utilised
as a corridor for the transit of foreign armies or arms during
wars. Once during the war, English planes were seen flying
over Switzerland on way to bomb Germany. Immediately,
a warning was given to those planes to quit the air space
of Switzerland forthwith. But the English, in their inflated
consciousness of strength, ignored the warning. Then
Switzerland, without compunction, shot down those
planes. Later, England sent a long letter of protest. But
Switzerland replied that she was a free nation determined
to preserve her neutrality and if there was a recurrence of
similar violation of her sovereignty, the same results would
follow !

Staking Fact on a Fiction

But in our country today, the queer notion has gained
ground that in this world we will be able to pull through
with all happiness and honour even without being strong,
that just an appeal to the higher sentiments of man, to
Panchsheel, or an appeal tot he UNO will act as a solvent
for all human conflicts. All such perverse notions are being
paraded as universal truths.

Our leading personalities even preach to our
army the virtues of ‘internationalism’ and ‘world

The Elixir of National Life— II

241

brotherhood ’ ! Once a military officer and another gentleman
were travelling with me in train. They were conversing
in Urdu. The military officer remarked, “Oh! You speak
very nice Urdu.” The other gentleman replied, “ Yes.
I have studied Urdu during my school days. But now, as
I have grown older, my love for Urdu has disappeared.”
The military officer asked, “What is the reason?” He
replied, “When I read Urdu or Persian, the picture that
comes up before me in all their literature is some bul-bul,
some Persia, some Eufratis, Tigris, but nothing of my
country.” The military officer exclaimed, “ How narrow-
minded and medieval you are ! Now the times are such
that we should give up thinking in narrow confines of
country, nation and so on. Now we have to think in terms
of the whole world.” Suppose such an army officer goes
out for war ; will he be able to fight with conviction for
the protection of his country? At any moment the c world
consciousness ’ in him may revolt and he may feel, “ What
is all this humbug? Why should I fight? What does it
matter if they conquer? After all they are as much human
beings as we are ! ” Then what will be our fate ? Will such
‘world consciousness’ save us from annihilation?

Once upon a time there was a Jyotishi. As we know,
the world has never been free from problems. This Jyotishi
was perturbed. Anxious to know the future of the world
he set out to note the positions of the various planets
influencing the earth. As he walked out of his village,
seeing one planet after another and weaving his web
of fancies and fears, he fell into a well. Fortunately
for the Jyotishi the well was long abandoned and dry.
He shouted for rescue. A small party was passing by.
When they had pulled him out they asked in wonderment,
“But Panditji, how did you manage to land yourself
in this out of the way well?” Panditji detailed his piety
for the world and his mission of the planets and sobbed
about his fall. His rescuers commented, “ Panditji,
before you set out to find the world’s horoscope, had

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Bunch of Thoughts

you but read your own, you might have well avoided
this fall.”

Those gentlemen who today camouflage weakness and
ignorance under the booming name of internationalism
would be well advised to take a lesson from the sorrows of
the Jyotishi and set our national house in order before
launching on international enterprises which they have no
power to execute. Those who speak of ‘world unity 9
and all that, while the world is governed by power politics
and might rules supreme, really do not seem to know what
they talk. The one fact of world politics today is the
existence of nation-states governed by the one supreme
consideration of self-interest and self-aggrandisement. They
who ignore this stake a fact on a fiction.

Once I was addressing a group of elders. I reviewed
the state of the nation and expressed my opinion that
unless we stopped the rot from within and became strong,
we will cease to live as a nation. Pat came the too wise
remark, “ What if we cease to live as a nation ? We’ll
live all the same, and live as humanity.” I replied, “Why,
we’ll ‘ live ’ even after we die. Our ashes — or rather our
entombed carcasses— will remain. For, has not science proved
the indestructibility of matter ? ”

Effects of Self-Hypnosis

Such is the ludicrous and dangerous extent to which
the present fads of ‘internationalism’, ‘world unity’ etc.,
have driven our country today. We are so thoroughly
hypnotised by such slogans that we have become incapable
of seeing through the aggressive designs of foreign powers
who put on the mask of ‘ world peace,’ ‘ internationalism 9
etc., etc. They come and conduct ‘international peace
conferences ’ here, while they prepare world-destructive
missiles in their own countries. The only meaning of all
their moves is that they want to draw us into their camp
to serve as cannon-fodder in the future war they are
planning. They, of course, want ‘peace’. But what kind

The Elixir of National Life— II

243

■of peace? With them as the masters and others as slaves,
they wish to sleep in peace and desire that the slaves
should not quarrel amongst themselves and disturb the
sleep of the master S And we, who have become victims of
fantastic fads, allow ourselves to be duped, and pat our
backs on our ‘progressive’ and ‘international’ outlook!
Do we not see our people going to the so-called inter-
national peace conferences organised by the Communists,
knowing fully well that such tactics are the thin end of
the wedge of Communist expansionism ?

The slogans and paper compromises like c peaceful
co-existence ’ and 4 Panchsheel ’ that our leaders are indulg-
ing in only serve as a camouflage for the self-seeking
predatory countries of the world to pursue their own
ulterior motives against our country. China, as we know
was most vociferous in its expression of faith in Panch-
sheel. China was extolled as our great neighbour and
friend for the last two thousand years or more from the
day it accepted Buddhism. Our leaders declared that they
were determined to stick to China’s friendship c at all costs’.
Once, we had similarly resolved to win the friendship of
Muslims in this land e at all costs ’. How much it has cost
us in terms of our national integrity and honour is all too
well known. The same history has been repeated in this
case also.

Portents Ignored

We have forgotten that the ancient Buddhist China
is now dead for the past few years. The Russian wizard
has called' a spirit in that corpse turning it into a fiend.
And we are today witnessing its devil-dance on our
borders. When it devoured Tibet and Pandit Nehru
mildly protested, he was curtly admonished not to poke
his nose in their ‘internal affair’. Our late Prime Minister
silently gulped down that national humiliation. From
then on, we had been continuously paying the ever-mount-
ing price to maintain China’s friendship and the glory of

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‘Panchsheel’— the historic treaty of ‘eternal friendship and
fraternity’ between the two great countries — on which
solemn signatures of the two great Prime Ministers were
affixed at the same time when the Chinese army trucks
were rolling on the military roads they had constructed in
Ladakh and were grabbing large chunks of our Himalayan
territory !

Dr. J. C. Kumarappa, a great disciple of Gand hiji
and an economist of repute, after his visit to Russia and
China had even in those days categorically warned that in
their eyes the treaty of Panchsheel was not worth the
paper on which it was written. But our leaders continued
to roam in their own dreamland, shutting their eyes to the
glaring signs of the all-enveloping danger of Communist
China’s aggression. The Communists in our country
distributed copies of a new map of China showing within
China portions of all Himalayan territories — Ladakh,
Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and NEFA (indicating the five
fingers of the aggressive fist of China protruding from
Tibet)— and of Burma. Our Government did not even
confiscate these maps.

When Khrushchev visited our country and was in
Kashmir, he declared, “When you are in distress, climb
the top of these mountains and shout for help. We will
always be ready on the other side to rush to your help.”
Let us not forget that their henchmeii are here who may
at any time raise that cry for help!

At the same time when Khrushchev and Bulganin were
being greeted with unprecedented ovations all over the
country and acclaimed as heroes of world peace, there was
a Russian documentary film being exhibited in our country.
The film opens with the scene of Moscow and the commen-
tator declares, “ Moscow, the capital of the future world” l
If Moscow is to become the capital, does it not imply that
the whole world must needs be under the heels of Russia?

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245

4 The Washerman’s Donkey’

We are still unable to free ourselves from the delusion
that our international prestige has risen because of such
pious platitudes. But what are the facts? For instance,
take Pakistan. This flesh of our flesh does not lose a
single opportunity to fling at us its impudent insults, shoot
and kidnap our men and officers, shoot down our planes
and carry on a regular genocide of Hindus still living
there. And now, it has invaded our country. Ceylon, a
tiny country, is throwing out lakhs of our brethren staying
in that land for generations. Burma also has followed
suit. We referred the Kashmir issue to the UNO as the
aggrieved party and in spite of our ‘high international prestige’,
that world forum is now treating us on par with the
aggressor ! It is claimed that our influence counted in
getting released eleven American pilots imprisoned in
China, that we played a notable role in Korea and so on.
Then, why has not that 'great international prestige’ come
into play in all those matters where our national honour and
integrity are gravely jeopardised ? Or is that ‘prestige’ similar
to that of the washerman’s donkey whose fate it is to
work all day for its master and then be driven out to fend
for itself?

Our leaders often repeat that because of our policy of
peace and non-alignment we are befriended and respected
by all the big powers. They point to the economic aid
that we are receiving from America and even from Russia.
But it is the same America which is arming our enemy
Pakistan with the latest arms. Is it a sign of friendship
to feed us on economic aid like a sacrificial goat on the one
hand and on the other to supply arms to those aggressing
on us? Much need not be said about Russia which has
declared its ‘unbreakable bonds of brotherhood’ with
China in contrast with its ‘friendship’ for Bharat and has
often acted as the driving force behind China’s aggressive
designs.

In our simplicity, we take the words and diplomatic

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Bunch of Thoughts

moves of the world powers at their face value and begin
to flatter ourselves that we occupy a great position in the
councils of the world. To give an example, some years
back Srimati Vijayalakshmi Pandit was elected as the
President of the General Assembly of the UNO. But what
was the ulterior motive behind that move to bestow that
‘great honour 1 on our country? Just then, the treacherous
plot of Sheikh Abdullah to turn Kashmir into an independent
state had been exposed. He had been dismissed and
arrested. The intrigues of UN agents in abetment of that
foul plot were also thoroughly exposed. The Anglo-
Americans — whose tools those UN agents were— became
anxious to devise ways and means to save their face and
retain their foot-hold in Kashmir and bring our country
into an amicable mood so as to continue their designs
unhampered. And what better means could they have
thought than bestowing the august honour of the UN
Presidentship upon the sister of our late Prime Minister
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ? That was a subtle form of
flattery and nothing more. But we, in our simplicity, took
it as a genuine honour done to us.

A Lesson for the Present

Thus we find that the various high-sounding concepts
that we have taken up as the sheet-anchor of our national
prestige and progress have really no value in this hard
world of reality. Unfortunately, in spite of burning our
fingers repeatedly, we are not able to overcome the infatuation
for wishful thinking. This has been a curse on our people
not merely now but for a number of centuries. When
Chengiz Khan was planning to invade our country he
came to know 7 that a large number of people here had
embraced Buddhism. So he made a show of becoming
a Buddhist and then invaded. Many of the Buddhists here,
seeing that he was their co-religionist, went forward
to welcome him. The result was, Chengiz Khan could
raise mountain-high heaps of human heads — all under the

The Elixir of National Life — II

247

4 non-violent ’ cover of Buddhism !

World Worships Strength

Let us at least now recognise the truth that for real
national honour, for real peace, there is no other way
except building invincible national strength. It is only
then that the great principles that we preach to the world
will carry weight and prestige. The world is not prepared
to listen to the philosophy, however sublime, of the weak*
There is an old incident which appeared in many of our
important papers. Our great national poet Rabindra-
nath Tagore had gone to Japan. He was to address the
University students on the greatness of Hindu Philosophy.
But the lecture hall remained vacant except for a few
professors ! Thinking that such a poor show would be an
insult to the distinguished visitor, one of the professors
tried to persuade the students, who were standing far
away, to attend the lecture. The students firmly refused
saying, “ We do not want to listen to the philosophy of
a slave nation ” !

The world worships only the strong. Before the last
war, when England was powerful, our people tried to
imitate and eulogise the English. But when, during the
war, it appeared for a time that Germany would win, they
began to adore Hitler and even Nazism. We know of
persons now most vociferous in their condemnation of
Hitler and Nazism but who were turning their radios in
secret to listen to German news in those days with a sense
of admiration. How elated they were to hear the fall of
France within hardly two weeks of German invasion ! Now
the very same persons worship either America or Russia
because these happen to be the countries which shattered
the military might of Germany and stand today as world
powers. The fascination the Communism holds for many
people today is mainly due to the show of brute strength
by the votaries of Communism— Russia and China. That
is the way of the world. Nobody cares a whit for the

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voice of the weak. Long ago our forefathers had declared
that the desires of the poor and weak are just castles in
the air —

!

Strength is Virtue, Weakness is Sin

Under any condition it is the weak who suffer. No
amount of external adjustments or juxtapositions will be
able to save a nation if it is inherently weak. To remain
weak is the most heinous sin in this world, as that would
destroy oneself and also incite feelings of violence in others.
Our forefathers have said that physical survival is part of
the highest religion and for physical survival strength is the
only basis. It is said of Vishwamitra that once during an
acute famine he did not get any food for days together.
One day he saw the rotting leg of a dead dog lying in a
Chandala’s house. Vishwamitra snatched it and got ready
to eat it by first making an offering to God. The Chandala
exclaimed, “Oh, sage, how is it you are eating a dog’s leg?’”
Vishwamitra replied, “Yes, I must first live and be strong
in order to do penance and good deeds in the world.”

But the thinking in our country during the last few
decades has been one of looking down upon strength as
something sinful and reprehensible. A wrong interpretation
of 4 non-violence ’ has deprived the national mind of the
power of discrimination. We have begun to look upon
strength as ‘ violence ’ and to glorify our weakness.

Once a Sadhu said, “The very word ‘ ahimsa’ (non-
violence) is a negative expression derived from ‘ himsa 9
(violence) by prefixing ‘a’ (non) to the positive idea of
himsa (violence). A person sufficiently strong to do himsa ,
but not doing so out of restraint, discretion and compas-
sion can alone be said to be practising ahimsa . Suppose a
strong man is going in a road and somebody knocks against
him. If the strong man says with compassion, “All right*
my dear fellow, I excuse you for the wrong you have done

The Elixir of National Life— II

249

me”, then we say that the strong man has practised non-
violence. For, though he is capable of giving him a blow and
smashing his skull, he has restrained himself.

Suppose, a thin, lean man — just a mosquito!— is going
and somebody pulls his ears and the ‘mosquito' trembling
from head to foot says, “Sir, I excuse you”, who will be-
lieve him? Who will say that he is practising non-violence?
He is like a man who, unable to check the dacoits plundering
his house, loudly proclaims vasudhaiva TciLtumbaham (the
entire world is my home)! People will only say that he is
a coward and hypocrite, that he dare not do anyrhing and
is only hiding his cowardice behind big platitudes. The
atmosphere of our country today is charged with such mis-
conceptions and platitudes of self-deception. A dense cloud
of dust is raised in the form of high-sounding words like
‘peace and ‘non-violence’ with an assumed air of moral
authority only to cover up our imbecility.

Non-Violence of the Imbecile

It is because of such perverse notions that we have
been losing all-round. Every day we find our frontiers
shrinking. No one is in a mood to protect the integrity
and honour of the motherland. Every national insult is
covered up under the mask of ‘peace’. Day after day
insults are being heaped upon us. Our people are being
shot down by the enemies. And China presents the dead
bodies of our eleven soldiers on the birthday of Pandit
Nehru ! All these we gulp down saying that we are
devotees of ‘peace’ ! It is said in the Mahabhdrata that
a person who goes on swallowing insults is neither a male
nor a female.

( He alone is a man who does not brooh or forgive insults. One who
remains cold and tolerant in the face of insults is neither a male nor
a female.)

10

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Bunch of Thoughts

The Great Examples

Our philosophy tells us that man should be humble
only when he is capable of humbling others. When can one
be forgiving? Only when one becomes powerful enough to
strike down those who insult him. When should one serve
others? Only when he becomes worthy of commanding the
willing service of the entire world. We see this ideal in
Sri Krishna who preached ahimsa in Gita , after annihilating
the many evil demons one after another right from his
childhood. It was he who slew Kamsa, reinstated Ugra-
sena on the throne but himself remained as the sentinel
at the court entrance, welcoming the royal guests. It was
again he who took upon himself the menial service of removing
the leaves after meals in the great Rajasuya Yaga of Yudhishihira,
where he was the person honoured with Agrapooja ! Such is the
message of our philosophy.

All our great masters who have set the standards of
our national conduct have always blended idealism with
realism, the highest principles of human welfare with the
demands of the practical world. An incident is narrated
in the Ramayana , which took place while the battle between
Rama and Ravana was at a high pitch. Lakshmana, after
killing Meghanad, the son of Ravana, had brought his head
to his camp. Meghanad’s wife Sulochana, who wanted to
ascend the funeral pyre along with her husband’s body,
proceeded towards Rama’s camp to request him to return
the head of her husband. The soldiers on the side of Rama
seeing a beautiful woman approaching their side from
Ravana’s camp, concluded that she must be Sita herself.
They were agog with joy and jubilation and were about to
lay down their arms. But when Sri Rama heard of the
excitement and the reason for it, he calmly told, “Do not
forget that Ravana with his ten heads and twenty arms is
still very much alive. It is only after walking over the
dead body of Ravana that we can enter Lanka and free
Sita. Do not dream of seeing Sita till then. Do not be
under any such illusion.” With his thorough grasp of human

The Elixir of National Life— II

251

psychology, he had correctly assessed Ravana’s nature and
had concluded that the rakshasas evil tendency was too
deep-rooted to allow him to change under any circumstance
and that his menace could be eliminated by the unfailing
Edmabana alone. Rama’s upholding of the highest standards
of human life and his conviction in the ultimate sanction
of strength were two aspects of the same character that
made him Maryddd-Purushottama (the ideal man).

And again in the MahabMrata Sri Krishna, on the
battle-field of Kurukshetra, invoked manliness in Arjuna
with the call:

m FT *PT: qpq-

( Yield not to imbecility , 0 Partha!) Of course, Arjuna was
not a coward. He was a born warrior. But having seen
his own elders and preceptors ranged against him, he was
riddled with doubts about the rectitude of his course of
action. He did not want to run away from the battle-
field. On the contrary, keeping aside his arms, he wanted
to die at the hands of his adversaries, in a spirit of
resignation.

tototo sfmrnpr: i

W5T TW 2 xmi W II

(Far better would it be for me if the sons of Dhritarashtra ,
weapons in hand , should slay me in the battle, while I remain ,
non-retaliating and unarmed.)

The same confusion appears to have gripped the hearts
of our leaders today. Words like ‘ non -retaliation ‘peace’
etc., are being shouted from housetops. Of course, there
is a vast difference between the mental conditions of the
two. Arjuna was a hero to the very core; while the
protestations of high-flown words like ‘non-retaliation’
etc., that we hear today are put up as a smoke-screen to
cover up our imbecility.

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Bunch of Thoughts

The Right Philosophy

In the world of today, whether one desires it or not,
conflicts are bound to arise. Merely because we remain
pious, does it imply that others also will be cured of their
wicked tendencies? Can there be a greater self-deception
than believing in such a palapably absurd superstition?
The sacrificial goat which is peacefully led to the altar of
sacrifice is, in fact, the very embodiment of 4 non-retalia-
tion ’ ! Without the slightest murmur, it puts its head
under the knife of the butcher. The butcher never feels
for a moment that he should not kill such an innocent,
"non-violent’ creature. At the same time no one dares
even to think of offering a tiger in sacrifice. It is only the
weak, docile, "non-violent’ goat that is pitched upon for
sacrifice. Even man eats its flesh with great relish. There
is a saying,

3m m m m ^ m ^ t
^TRT ^fT 1 1

(It is not the horse , not the elephant , and never never the
tiger hut the goat that is offered in sacrifice; even gods destroy
the weak.) Such is the fruit of the attitude of ‘non-retali-
ation 5 ! Of course, we should not indulge in unprovoked
violence. At the same time, we should also not allow
others to do violence to us. Allowing violence to be done
to oneself is also violence and therefore adharma. Once a
great Jain Sadhu explaining the significance of ahimsa
said, “ If you are faced with a brute force bent upon

destroying you and you do nothing to protect youself in
the name of ahimsa , then you will have only encouraged
the evil power to indulge in violence. You thus become
an abettor in the crime and an abettor is as much guilty
of the crime as the actual perpetrator.” He added,

“Intention, and not the physical act, is the only criterion
to decide whether the act is in the nature of himsa or

ahimsa

The teachings of the really great ones have always

The Elixir of National Life— II

253

guided us correctly in all such matters. Even a most
compassionate saint like Tukaram defined compassion as :

3^1 %% tN - ^dK qr^rr srrfer

(Protection of all living beings and destruction of the wicked
elements ). Sri Krishna has unequivocally and for all time to
come declared that establishment of dharma implies the
destruction of the evil doers:

f^TRTTq- =5T I

Sri Krishna himself was the very embodiment of that
principle. No doubt he preached and put all his weight to
avoid war and bring about peace. But he clearly foresaw
that the ultimate sanction lay in his own supreme strength.
When he was about to go to Duryodhana for compromise
talks, Dharmaraja became anxious about his safety think-
ing that the evil-natured Duryodhana might harm
Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna assured him that in that event
Dharmaraja would get the kingdom without a war as
he himself would destroy Duryodhana and his host of
associates. That is the only right view regarding the role
of strength while facing adversaries. To speak and act
always in terms of applying force when not needed and
when a just and honourable compromise is possible is
inhuman and brutal. But to talk always of compromise
and not to use force even when there is no other way out
to undo injustice and insults is sheer cowardice and
imbecility.

We, therefore, have to properly understand the true
'message of those great lives as lived by them in this world
of hard realities. And the hard reality is that the world,
as it is constituted today, understands but one language—
the language of strength. It is on the unshakable foundation
of immense strength alone that the nation rises and maintains
itself in a glorious condition.

254

Bunch of Thoughts

For an Invincible National Will

Where does this strength come from? What is that
real and inexhaustible source of national strength? It is
the consolidated, dedicated and desciplined life of the
people as a whole. After all, all the various spheres of
life are only so many manifestations of the innate strength
of the people. Political power is one such manifestation.
Military power is another. But the essential store-house
of power is the well-disciplined, intensely patriotic and
heroic condition of the people.

It has been truly said that it is not the gun but the
heart behind it that fights. Without a strong patriotic
heart no amount of arms and ammunition will save the
country. There is an incident which occurred during
what people call a 4 Hindu-Muslim ’ riot, but which is
invariably a Muslim riot as it is always the Muslim who
strikes first and it is the Hindu who bears the brunt.
During that disturbance, a Hindu sat upstairs in his house
with a loaded gun. Some Muslim goondas attacked his
house, but as the doors were tightly secured they could
not enter inside. Then, one of them flourished a small
axe in his hand, shouting to the person sitting above to
throw down the gun or else he would be cut into pieces 1
Struck with terror, the Hindu gentleman actually let down that
gun and was shot down with the same gun ! So, it is the fearless
and steel-willed man alone who can wield weapons and protect
himself. Similar is the case with the nation.

It is on these practical and realistic guidelines of
national conduct that our people can hope to rise again as
a great nation. All our efforts have therefore to be con-
centrated in the direction of generating invincible national
strength by making our people nationally conscious and
moulding them all for a well-disciplined, co-ordinated and
invincibly powerful national entity, which alone is the ultimate
sanction for a free and glorious national life on the face of this
earth.

XYI

Worshippers of Victory

Deifying the great — Misreading of scriptures — Selfish
ness , helplessness at the root — Effort is God — Great
examples — Worship of the victorious — Martyr , great
but not ideal — Lesson of Rajput martyrdom — Act , do
not react — Philosophy of right action .

O UR great men stand as lamp-posts on the path to the
fulfilment of our national life-mission and national
glory. In order that the coming generations may pursue
that path with success, it is essential that their inspiring
memories and examples are kept undimmed in the national
mind and the lessons of the lives and deeds of those masters
of thought and action are presented in their true perspective.
It is precisely with this end in view that the celebration of
the anniversaries of birth and death of our ancient heroes
has found a pride of place in our national tradition since
hoary times.

Deifying the Great

But unfortunately a serious perversion has crept into
this tradition of recollecting the ideals set up by those
great ancestors. Our people, placing implicit faith in the
Gita verse—

srsrfe 3T i

& *r*T ^rfaRiwr n

255

256

Bunch of Thoughts

(Whatever being is there , endowed with grandeur , beauty or
capacity , know that it has sprung from a spark of My splendour) —
see in the extraordinary power of such great souls a sign of
the manifestation of Divinity, a spark of the Divine Effulgence.
So far, it is all right.

But this has led to a delusive belief that all such
great men are super-human beings far above and beyond
the reach of the common man. The common man, feeling
himself a meek creature of circumstances, tries to find a
path of safe escape for himself by pushing them into the
orbit of divinity. For, thereby, he will be absolved of the
responsibility of following them in his practical day-to-day
life which would entail for him various trials and tribula-
tions. He, in his weakness and helplessness, also implores
God to come to his rescue and save him from the trouble
of facing all these dangers. He, on his part, feels that he
should sit comfortably at home and let all things be set
right by God’s grace!

Coupled with this is the craze for maximum benefits
and enjoyment with minimum responsibility and risk to
oneself in practically all fields of our life today. Nowhere
do we come across the spirit of manliness which says,
“Well, I am a ‘man’. I shall put forth manly efforts and
discharge my duties with utmost exertion without caring
for any eventuality, be it happiness or misery.” That is
the reason why a person born in a wealthy family is taken
to be highly fortunate as without any effort he is the
master of all comfort and luxury. He is not to worry
himself for his food and drink. There are servants at his
beck and call for doing every little work for him leaving
him all the time to wallow in vulgar pleasures. Thus, due
to helplessness in one’s life or due to such craze for
enjoyment, the common man naturally feels that he should
not be called upon to do anything by himself. He thinks,
“Let God come down to earth and take me to the shores
from the whirlpool of adversities. Let him shower comforts
upon me, end His Incarnation and return to His abode”!

Worshippers of Victory

257

It is with such, fond hopes that in times of adversity
an ordinary man prays and takes refuge in God as if the
Almighty will be moved by his prayers and will appear
on earth from time to time to protect these ‘saints’ and
redeem His pledge of —

STP£TT feWR =sr I

(For the protection of the saints , for the destruction of the
wicked and for the establishment of dharma I am born again
and again.)

In this regard, our founder used to jocularly remark,
“I, on the other hand, implore Almighty not to take birth
just now. For, finding the whole of society immersed in
indolence and selfishness, i.e., in adharma , he would only
destroy it completely according to his pledge of destroying
adharma! So, let us become sddhus first, which means
leading a life of effort and sacrifice in the cause of society
and then call the Almighty. Then only He will save us
and destroy the evil-doers.”

But the ordinary persons feel that their duty is over
by remembering sometimes those great ‘Incarnations' and
worshipping them as Divinity Manifest. They have no
desire to do anything more. For example, our people have
regarded Sri Ramachandra as an Incarnation of Vishnu
and have been worshipping him all down these centuries.
But in the case of most of us, it was never with a view to
imbibe his manly virtues and manifest ‘Rama’ in ourselves.
Our founder used to narrate an interesting incident in this
connection. Once, while talking to an elderly gentleman
who used to recite regularly Adhyatma Ramayana at home,
he casually asked that gentleman which quality of
Sri Rama had appealed to him most and inspired him to
emulate it in his life. On hearing those words the gentleman
flew into a veritable rage and exclaimed, “What nonsense!
Do you think we mortals can emulate the qualities of a
god? The recitation is meant to give us spiritual merit for

258

Bunch of Thoughts

attaining salvation. What more do we want?”

The same has been the attitude towards Sri Krishna.
We regarded Gita as a divine scripture, got by rote all its
verses, recited it, praised it in superlatives, but never once
imagined that Bhagavad-Gita is the greatest treatise on human
duties intended to be followed in our day-to-day practical
life. We find this fantastic notion gripping our mind in all
walks and strata of our social life.

Let us take a recent example. Lokamanya Tilak was
a very great Jcarmayogi and an outstanding national leader.
But after his passing away neither his followers nor the
common people bothered to emulate his great life and his
noble virtues. Nor did they strive to continue his wise
political traditions. On the other hand, they erected his
statues, opened a few schools and raised funds in his name,
celebrated his birthdays and profusely showered on him
their verbal homage! And with this, they felt satisfied as
having done their duty towards the Lokamanya. Some of
the innocent, simple-minded devotees of Tilak even made
him a Chaturbhuja (four-armed) and worshipped him, meaning
thereby that he was an Incarnation of God and they were
only poor mortals. How could they, then, hope to rise
to those heights of Godhood? Their life was after all
meant only to eat, drink, earn money, rear up children and
finally die one day!

Effort is Almighty

It is this mentality of saving one’s skin that makes the
people thrust the great men into the line of Godhead.
The ordinary man is confounded and terrified when
surrounded by calamities. Not knowing anything else to
do, he takes refuge in God. He wails and weeps praying
God £ to come once again’. In that darkness of despair he
finds no ray of hope except God. We sometimes see even
great saints and scholars bewailing in that manner. And
if, under such circumstances, a great man appears on
the scene' and changes the course of events with his

Worshippers of Victory

259

prowess, fortitude and sagacity, then he is readily thrown
into the rank of gods ! But it is sheer weakness that makes
one push such great men outside the pale of human beings.

We have to change this perverse mentality of our people
and plant in its stead an attitude of manliness and effort.
Swami Ramadas has said, yatna to deva jandva (Effort is
God). We should take refuge in God, manifested as human
effort. This is the land of duty, karma bhoomi , the land
of human endeavour. It is the soil sanctified by the
sweat and blood of human giants. It is here that all our
latent powers and virtues blossom forth, and our latent
divinity gets awakened. Let this right conviction inspire
us to step forward on the path of human effort. Let us
worship and revere those great souls, not as gods but
as men just like us who have risen to those heights by dint
of their personal efforts. When Ravana abducted Sita,
Sri Ramachandra bewailed and shed tears as anyone of
us would do when struck by misfortune in our family
life. By this he proclaimed to the world that he too was a
human being just as anyone else. Though he ate and
drank, slept and walked like anyone of us and felt all
the common emotions of a human being, each moment of
his life beckons us with its highest ideal of manhood
attained through supreme personal effort.

Our great saints and devotees have no doubt laid great
stress on prayer to the Almighty. But they never preached
inaction in life. Such devotees who indolently weep in the
name of God have always been held in utmost ridicule.
All our great men have persistently striven to infuse
the spirit of manliness and duty in our society. They
stand before us as glorious examples of human endeavour
and achievement in various walks of life. We are the
children of all those heroes of action. Their blood flows
in our veins. They did not drop from the heavens as ready-
made great men. They scaled those heights of greatness
on the strength of their effort, intelligence, fortitude,
sacrifice and such other manly virtues. Why should we

260

Bunch of Thoughts

not have the faith that we too, to some extent at least, can
manifest the same virtues in our life? If we have to rise
as a great nation, it is most essential that we take up this
correct attitude whenever we look upon the lives and deeds
of the great ones of the past.

Worship of the Victorious

Let us now see what type of great lives have been
worshipped in this land. Have we ever idealised those who
were a failure in achieving life’s goal? No, never. Our
tradition has taught us to adore and worship only those
who have proved fully successful in their life-mission. A
slave of circumstances has never been our ideal. Our ideal
has been that hero who becomes the master of the situation,
changes it by sheer dint of his calibre and character and
wholly succeeds in achieving his life’s aspirations. It is
such great souls, who lit up the dismal darkness all around
them by their self-effulgence, inspired confidence in frustrated
hearts, breathed life even into the near-dead and held aloft
the living vision of success and inspiration, that our culture
commands us to worship.

A Sri Rama is our ideal, who on the strength of his
valour, sagacity and will-power vanquished so powerful
a tyrant as Ravana who had enslaved the whole world and
imprisoned ‘the 33 crores of gods’. And again the glorious
ideal of one, who with his incomparable powers of body
and intellect could easily have crowned himself as an
invincible monarch but refused to do so, comes up before
us in the form of the wholly fruitful life of Sri Krishna.
Our points of worship have always been such successful
lives. It is obvious that those who were failures in life
must have had some serious drawback in them. How can
one, who is defeated, give light and lead others to success?
How can a flame faltering at every whiff of the breeze
illumine our path ? It is only a life, standing like a towering
lighthouse, erect and undimmed amidst all raging tempests
and rains and constantly dispelling darkness, that

Worshippers of Victory

261

can guide the ship of our life to the shores of success.
Martyr, Great but Not Ideal

When a society is constantly subjected to all kinds of
calamities and stark despair stares it in the face, it develops
various kinds of mental complexes. There are some who
go down under the weight of disasters and helplessly look
forward to some divine succour. But when God does not
seem to listen to their prayers and calamities continue
to encompass them more and more, some get infuriated and
strive to change the desperate situation. But they do not
have enough strength to bring about the desired change.
No doubt, discontent burns in them, but they find them-
selves too weak to face the situation.

But the fire in their hearts does not allow them to sit
as silent and helpless spectators simply bewailing their fate.
They prefer to lay down their lives displaying a spark of
heroism rather than groan under the intolerably oppressive
situation. All around them, forces of darkness and despair,
ignorance and calumny dance in naked fury— with not a
ray of hope, not a single soul to respond to their call. The
weak-hearted quail and simply lie low. But those with fire
in them refuse to do so and prefer to destroy themselves
with a flash of sacrifice. The ordinary man is blinded
by the flash of such a death and he exclaims, “What
a fiery spirit he was ! He broke but did not bend.” The
people call him a ‘martyr’ and offer homage to him.

Except our Bharatiya culture, all others have adored
and idealised martyrdom and have looked upon such
martyrs as their heroes. Why do they call Jesus Christ a
great soul? Because he was a martyr and offered his life
in sacrifice. But in our Bharatiya tradition, this type of
immolation is not considered as the highest ideal. There
is no doubt that such men who embrace martyrdom
are heroes and their philosophy too is pre-eminently manly.
They are far above the average men who meekly submit to
fate and remain in fear and inaction. All the same, we

262

Bunch of Thoughts

have not held up such persons as ideals before our society.
We have not looked upon their martyrdom as the highest
point of greatness to which man should aspire. For, after
all, they failed in achieving their ideal, and failure implies
some fatal flaw in them.

The Message of 4 Incarnations 5

Just as we do not idealise one’s self-destruction out of
frustration in one’s personal life, we do not alse eulogise
this type of self-immolation on the national plane. Real
greatness lies in achieving total success in life. In our
culture, worship has been offered only to such men who by
their extraordinary nerve and calibre braved the roughest
of seas and storms and finally succeeded in turning the
adverse tide of circumstances to their side. They were the
makers, and not the mere products, of their times. This
is the case with all those great men who are taken to be
‘Incarnations’ in our national tradition. Take for example,
the story of ‘Ten Incarnations’. Whenever our society
was gripped by dangers and disasters, plunged in a stupor
and only bewailed impotently taking the name of God,
there arose a gigantic personality who, with his spirit of
boundless sacrifice, penance, intelligence and power of
action, subdued all adversaries and became a symbol of
victory. Whatever the forms assumed— a fish or a boar
or a student in the guise of a mendicant — they succeeded
in achieving their holy life-mission.

Such are our heroes, the very embodiment of victory.
The very life-breath of our hero-worship is this spirit of
‘will to win’. Such souls will never lose sight of the
ultimate victory even for a single moment of their life or
falter *on their path when faced with peril, but will
constantly press forward and pool their resources so as to
rise equal to the task. And ultimately they live to see
their glorious victory.

Worshippers of Victory

263 -

Lessons of Rajput Martyrdom

However, we have witnessed in our history that
martyrs also have had their honoured and inevitable place
in the process of national regeneration. No one can say
that their martyrdom has gone in vain. The number of
such heroes who fell martyrs in the cause of freedom of
our country is not small. It might be that they had not
the calibre to come out victorious, but it is a fact that
they had the necessary spirit of sacrifice and heroism to
embrace death smilingly for the protection of swadharma
and swasamaj . Along with this individual martyrdom we
also find in our society, whole bands of heroes immolating
themselves en masse to uphold what they considered as the
duty of a warrior— kshaira dharma.

The history of Rajputs is scintillating with such
thrilling incidents. When surrounded on all sides by
relentless foes and left without a ray of hope, those flowers
of Hindu chivalry and valour silently witnessed their
mothers and sisters, wives and daughters leaping into the
flames of jowhar and then donning saffron robes plunged
headlong with their flashing swords into the enemy forces,
never to return. They preferred honourable martyrdom
to the despicable existence of defeat and disgrace. The
Rajputs have, by such glorious deeds of valour and self-
sacrifice, written a dazzling and awe-inspiring page of our
history. Such flashes of matchless heroism, such a joyful
spirit of sporting with death is rarely be found in the
annals of world history. It is but right that we cherish
sentiments of pride and respect towards those heroic souls.
But it is a fact that those heroes always entered the battle-
field with the sole thought of dying and not with the will
to win. They were inspired by the sole idea of meeting a
hero’s death.

q-feTT It

264

Bunch of Thoughts

(The all-renouncing yogis and the heroes who die fighting on the
battle-field , both these pierce the solar orbit and attain the same
spiritual beatitude .)

Imbued with this conviction, the brave Rajput warrior
would gladly go forward when the call for battle was given
and would charge into the enemy ranks, caring little for
death.

As the desire, so the result. If the will to win is
supreme, victory ensues; and for one who desires only
death, death is sure to come. Even if we plunge such a
one, who only aspires to die, in a pond of nectar, he is
bound to get drowned in it and die ! No one can save him.
A person sitting underneath the Kalpavriksha , the tree of
fulfilment of desires, gets whatever he desires. And so
does the Almighty bless a hero with whatever he intensely
desires while doing his duty as a warrior. The martyrdom
of Rajputs no doubt reflects remarkable valour and a
proud and defiant spirit, but at the same time embodies a
wrong and suicidal aspiration. It is a memorable but,
nevertheless, a sad chapter in the saga of our Bharatiya
heroism.

Not Reaction but Action

It is only because of a mistaken notion of kshdtra
dharma that those heroes destroyed themselves by aspiring
martyrdom.’ It is also a kind of weakness. To fly into
a rage en masse being unable to bear the brunt of circum-
stances and go down under its weight cannot be our ideal.
Such an emotionally high-strung group cannot have that
calm and collected will which remains unruffled amidst the
distracting pulls of circumstances and which alone can lead
ultimate victory. A reactionary mind that loses its
balance at the slightest blow is taken to be of a low order.
An animal, devoid of reasoning power, leads a life of mere
reaction. It has not the capacity to think calmly and act
so as to overcome the adversities. But intelligent and
mature men do not merely react to circumstances. They

Worshippers of Victory

265

boldly act with a will to make circumstances their slave.
A man speaks out of his own will, whereas a lifeless hill
only gives rise to an echo. Children imitate the barking:
of a dog but not so the mature men ! An unintelligent
being only destroys himself in the process of weak reaction.
To a mature man, to kill or to get killed, can never be the
ideal. His attitude is a constructive one. He silently proceeds
on the well thought out path which takes him to ultimate
victory. And such are our ideals— those who have worshipped
victory and successfully fulfilled their mission in life.

True Dharma

Sri Rama, one of our greatest ideals, is a living example
of this philosophy of victory. Killing of woman is supposed
to be against kshatra dharma. It also ordains one to fight
the enemy in the open. Nevertheless Sri Rama killed the
rdkshasi Tratika and shot at Vali from behind a tree. For,
Sri Rama was aware of his ultimate duty of establishing the
rule of righteousness by destroying the wicked. The slaying
of an innocent woman is sinful but the same principle
cannot be applied to a demoness. The technique of fighting:
also varies according to the nature of the enemy. This is
the right understanding of kshatra dharma and Sri Rama
followed it. There were in those times eminent preceptors
who preached such right concepts ; there were heroic disciples-
too who followed them.

The same has been the case with Sri Krishna and
Arjuna. Just before the great war of Mahabhdraia was to
commence, Arjuna, seeing his elders and teachers like
Bhishma, Drona and others ranged against him, lost his.
spirits and threw down his bow. Seeing him confounded,
Sri Krishna roused him saying, “ Is not your very name
‘Vijaya 5 (Victory)? Your duty is to achieve victory on
the battle-field. Why then do you delude yourself thus?'
Your foremost duty is to strike down evil and its supporters,
whoever they may be, and establish the supremacy of the-
good and the just.”

266

Bunch of Thoughts

And again during the battle, when Kama had got
down to lift up the wheels of his chariot stuck up in mud,
-Sri Krishna commanded Arjuna to direct his arrows at him.
Kama appealed to Arjuna in the name of dharma , saying
that it was adharma to strike at an unarmed and chariotless
adversary. Then the great Yogi Sri Krishna thundered,
“O Kama! What are the dhdrmic injunctions you have
followed till today that you now come forward to preach
dharma to us? Where had your dharma gone when all of
you had surrounded the unarmed lad Abhimanyu and
slaughtered him shamelessly? Where had your dharma
disappeared when you insulted a helpless woman, Draupadi,
in an open assembly? I know only one dharma to protect,
and that is Dharmaraj ! ” It was because Sri Krishna
presented this correct perspective and thereby steeled the will
of Arjuna that he could fight the war and bring laurels of
victory to the forces of dharma .

The Philosophy of 4 Will to Win 5

This has been our philosophy, the philosophy of victory
of the forces of righteousness over the forces of evil
preached and practised over millennia. Even today, the
demoniac forces of evil are strutting about the world stage,
armed with world-destructive weapons and threatening the
very future of humanity. It is only on the strength of our
•philosophy which steels our will to win that we can inspire
mankind to face this new challenge of adharma . Many
a time even the renowned thinkers of the West despair
of the future. Bertrand Russel, for example, is supposed
to be a great philosopher of the West. Even he, when
faced with the prospect of a nuclear holocaust in case of
•conflict with Communist Powers, said, “Let us be red
rather than be dead.” What sort of a philosopher is he
who counsels despair and not manliness? In fact, that is
•exactly what the Communists want — to break up the
mental resistance to their onslaught. Well, our philosophy
mnd philosophers have never counselled despair in the fight

Worshippers of Victory

267

against the forces of evil. Faith in the ultimate triumph
of the forces of good over the forces of evil is ingrained in
our blood. Vanquishing rakshasas and establishing the-
kingdom of manava dharma has been our tradition since
hoary times. Verily man’s real purushatua — manliness — -
lies in establishing his superiority over the rdkskasa. Do
we not know that man, even in his early days, did not
succumb to the wild beasts of prey, though they were
physically far more fierce and powerful? He conquered
them and asserted his superiority. Communists too may
appear for the present to be endowed with all such fierce
powers of destruction. But the power of goodness inherent
in man is more potent and is bound to overcome the
evil forces in course of time. That is what a true reading,
of human history tells us and that is what our ancient
masters of philosophy have taught us.

Let us, therefore, decide to tread that path , concentrating
all our attention and strength on reaching the final goal
of victory over all the forces of evil. We are to test every
act, apparently good or bad, on this touchstone of ultimate
victory of the forces of dharma. That which leads to the
victory of the virtuous and the righteous, is alone good and
meritorious. And] the examples and lessons of the victorious
and great lives in their true light can inspire us with the
necessary will to win and awaken in us the right discrimination
to achieve ultimate victory in that path of dharmasthapana.
i. e., establishing righteousness all over the world, which,
has been our national life-mission since ages.

XVII

Fight to Win*

/. the XtLffltt

ptteaaM'ces

Nature and magnitude of threat — Steel people’s will—
Robust national leadership required — Keep up nation’s
morale — Watchword— Economise ! — Dangers of person-
ality cult— Communist ‘ split ', a ruse — Warning of
Chinese * Cease-fire’ —Beware Pakistani fifth column —
Appeasing Pakistan suicidal — Recognise friends —
Fortify trusted sentinels.

P EOPLE say that since the 20th of October 1962 there has
been an invasion of our country by China. However,
the present drive of the Chinese is not unexpected, though
our Government seems to have been taken by surprise.
When China invaded and annexed Tibet, it was clear that
they had no benevolent intentions towards us. Surrounded
by Russia on the one side and the ocean on the other, the
only direction, the only weak spot China could look to for
-expansion was Tibet. The British had maintained an
independent status for Tibet so that it may serve as a
buffer State between Bharat and China. In their zeal to
undo what the Britishers had done, our present rulers
.accepted sovereignty of China over Tibet. And again, as

In the wake of Chinese invasion in October, * 62 .

268

Fight to Win — I

269 *

our Government itself has confessed, the Chinese had
pressed forward and illegally occupied 12,000 square miles-
of our territory. In the face of these facts we can hardly
accuse China of treachery. Their attitude to our country
has been openly hostile for years.

Before we can think of devising effective measures-
to meet the present threat we have to first disabuse
our minds of preconceived notions and correctly analyse
and assess the true nature of the enemy and the magnitude-
of his preparations.

Warnings Ignored

Firstly, we have to keep in mind that China has-
always been expansionist. It is in its blood. Napoleon
had forewarned over one hundred and fifty years ago not
to rouse that yellow giant lest he should prove a grave
peril to humanity. Seventy years ago Swami Vivekananda
had specifically warned that China would invade Bharat
soon after the Britishers quit.

For the past eight years we of the Sangh, too, had been
unambiguously warning that China had aggressed into our
territory at various strategic points. Then nobody was
prepared to believe us. The editor of a leading English
daily even said that we were talking like madmen. And
now our leaders say that they were taken by surprise !

Now, added to the expansionist blood of China is the
intoxicant of Communism which is an intensely aggressive,
expansionist and imperialistic ideology. Thus in Com-
munist China we have the explosive combination of two
aggressive impulses. It is a case of—

srfqr ^ifq'^TPTT i

(Already a monkey, moreover , drunk with wine). We would
therefore only be deluding ourselves and taking false steps-
in our preparation to face it if we attribute Communist
China’s aggressiveness only to its racial nature and not to-
its present Communism also.

270

Bunch of Thoughts

Nature of Yellow Peril

Some say that this invasion is a 4 godsend 5 and a
* blessing in disguise’ because it has roused and unified our
people into a single national entity. Of course, the people
have responded magnificently to the call of the hour and
have risen as one man with a firm determination to throw
out the enemy. But they do not know how to express
that determination and what they are required to do.
They carried on processions, demonstrations, burnt effigies,
passed resolutions as they were accustomed to do in their
struggle against the British. But we must realise that the
enemy we are now facing is of an altogether different kind.
The Englishmen were a civilized people who generally
followed the rule of law. But the Chinese are a different
proposition. They do not possess even normal human
qualities like kindness, pity or respect for human life. In
fact, Mao Tse-tung once openly expressed his desire to see
a world war with all the modern nuclear weapons brought
into full play. His logic is that majority of people will
then be annihilated in America, Russia and all the other
countries of Europe. If in that holocaust even if, say,
40 crores of Chinese are wiped out, still they will have
25 crores left to rule the whole world. To them, that is
a very simple logic. They do not worry about the loss of
human life. It is just like grass to be cut and replanted!
That was the experience in Korea. When they invade
they come in waves after waves. When one column is
wiped out it is simply replaced by another.

It is said that a man becomes what he eats. It is
said of the Chinese that the only biped they do not eat is
man and the only quadruped they spare is a table! They
eat rats, cats, pigs, dogs, serpents, cockroaches and every-
thing. Such men cannot be expected to have human
qualities. Therefore the technique used against a civilized
people like the British is of no use in dealing with the
Chinese. Also, it is no use blaming them that they are
deceits, wretches and so on. Such abuses only sound like

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the curses of a weakling who cannot give blow for a blow'
and therefore tries to satisfy himself by abusing his foe.-
We should not succumb to that low mentality.

Further, let us bear in mind that today the whole
of China is an armed camp. Each adult is trained in arms.
They even have an edge over us in superior arms. Their'
leaders too are born and bred in the climate of bloody
warfare continuously over the past several decades.

However, we can make up for these adverse factors*
provided we step up our efforts in grim earnest in the right
direction.

Steel People’s Will

The first requisite is to steel our will for a nation-wide.,
determined and organised effort. The struggle is likely
to be long and bitter. All of us will be called upon to
undergo suffering and sacrifices. Let all of us face these
difficulties steadfastly and with good cheer. There is no-
doubt that the adoration for our motherland which had

been lying dormant in our hearts so long will now glow and
dispel all dark shadows of selfishness and mutual jealousies.
It is indeed encouraging to see so many people coming
forward to contribute to the National Defence Fund. I

hope more and more of them will give still more. Let

all persons physically fit be ready for military service.

And let their mothers bless and send forth their sons at this-
hour of trial. When the five Pandavas went to see Kunti,.
their mother, before the war of Mahabharata, she blessed
them saying, “Go ye all to the battle. This is the occasion
for which Kshatriya women give birth to sons. Go and
give your best in this dharmayuddha Let every mother-
speak in the same heroic strain to her sons even now.

Modern wars, be it remembered, are total wars. They
are not merely pitched battles between armies. Every
one, right from the scientist and industrialist to the labourer-
and farmer, will have to work harder and longer in
a spirit of national dedication, shelving aside all other

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Bunch of Thoughts

■considerations of personal and group interests, disputes
and claims for the time being.

Leadership on Trial

The second requisite is a leadership with an adamantine
will which will not be unnerved by the present crisis and
climb down to talks of peace. But some of our top leaders
.are so much infatuated with notions of peace that they
are already swept off their feet by the present Chinese
declaration of cease-fire. They feel that peace should be
purchased at all costs. It was in this process of ‘purchasing
peace at all costs’ that our motherland was vivisected
fifteen years ago. It was again in the same process that we
lost one third of Kashmir. Now Berubari is on the way.
Let the lesson of these past tragedies serve as an eye-opener
to us at least in the present crisis.

Therefore it is our duty to rouse the collective will of
the people by educating and mobilising public opinion
so that our leaders are never allowed to arrive at any
dishonourable agreement with the aggressors. Acceptance
of cease-fire on our part before driving the enemy out of
Tibet would be a grave strategic blunder. Our experience
of cease-fire in Kashmir should be a warning to us.
Premature cease-fire would only demoralise our army and
our people. That would virtually turn their tremendous
sacrifices into a sheer waste. If our present leaders cannot
continue the national struggle at the necessary high pitch,
let them make way for men of stronger mettle. Intelligence
and calibre are not the monopoly of a few individuals,
however powerful and popular they may be for the present.
Bharat, the mother of an immortal race of heroes, has
never suffered from the dearth of heroic and competent
leaders.

We can tolerate no retreat, no slackening of efforts on
our part. If we allow the Chinese to continue to sit tight
over our territory we would be allowing them breathing
time and offering them a springboard for further expansion.

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273

That would jeopardise our national security for all time to
come. It is the duty of all of us, therefore, to see that our
leaders do not slip at this crucial hour, by giving them caution
and courage to act as heroic men in keeping with the honour
and sovereignty of our great country.

Beware Enemy’s Strategy

This caution has become all the more necessary in view of
the demoralising effect that the Chinese declaration of
cease-fire has had upon our people. That is the strategy
of the enemy; to lull us into a false sense of security, to
dampen our enthusiasm and see that our war efforts are
slackened ; then taking us unawares, to strike again with
greater force and capture the whole country.

There is a second factor which is adversely telling
upon the people’s morale. So far, all that we have been
doing for defence efforts is to collect money. In the
beginning, people gave money spontaneously out of their
own free will. That was good as it helped to awaken and
symbolise the patriotic will of the people. But later on the
Government itself has taken up the task of collecting
money. The first flush of popular enthusiasm is also
waning. Definite and authentic information has come
from all over the country that Government machinery
is applying various types of pressure to get money from
the people. That would be nothing less than extortion.
When Government resorts to such pressure tactics then the
people will tend to think, “ Well, if we are to be
threatened thus, what is the difference between our own rule
and a foreigner’s rule?” This will totally destroy the
spontaneity of the people and demoralise them.

Watchword— Economise !

If we are really serious about mobilising our financial
resources there are other and healthy ways open to us.
The first thing is, now that Emergency is declared, dissolve
the State Assemblies for the time being. That would

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save crores of rupees every year. One single elected
Parliament at the Centre can very well satisfy the demands
of democracy. Secondly, scrap Prohibition. This does
not mean minimising the evil of liquor. Far from it. The
demon of wine must be buried deep. There can be no
two opinions about it. But the present policy of Prohi-
bition has given rise to many other dangerous social evils
which were not found so far in our country. Persons
addicted to liquor are getting it all right but in illicit
ways. Then there are persons who carry on this illicit
business and a whole host of corrupt officials who profit by
the continuation of Prohibition. It is, in fact, these
vested interests which desire the continuation of Prohi-
bition. This is corroding the people’s morals. It is this
moral aspect that makes us say, 44 Scrap Prohibition.”
The evil of drink can be gradually eliminated by proper
education and cultivation of healthy habits of recreation
and not by legislation. This step will also bring a handsome
revenue to the Government.

Further, the immense resources that are required to
meet this emergency can be mobilised only by economis-
ing on every other front to the maximum possible ex-
tent. But unfortunately, economy seems to be the last
quality of the responsible persons of our country today.
Of course, they advise people in general to economise.
But from the extravagance they themselves are indulging
in, one would feel that they do not really realise that there
is any serious threat to our country at all. They are far too
busy in consolidating themselves in their present seats of
power, in internal rivalries, weeding out their own unwanted
colleagues, and such other trifles, which leaves them little time
to concentrate on things of vital importance for a formidable
build-up of our defence.

Welcome Criticism

When we speak out all these things our great leaders
warn us to desist from criticising them at this hour of

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275

crisis. We fail to understand why they should fight shy
of honest patriotic criticism. Do they expect us merely
to approve all that they are doing as being cent per cent
right? Will such flattery serve the interests of the country?
If they are really in the right in all their policies and doings
then there will be no occasion for others to criticise. And
if, on the other hand, they are in the wrong, we are duty-
bound to criticise and correct them. They too should
listen to and respect the voice of the people in all humility.
The very fact that our leaders have become so touchy
about criticism indicates that there must be ample scope
for criticism!

Suppression of honest criticism will be nothing less
than gagging the people’s voice reminiscent of the tyrannical
rule of a Hitler or a Stalin. But be it remembered
that such despotic rule was short-lived and immediately
after their exit, history has not spared them and world
opinion has totally denounced them. There is one more
thing. As persons rise in positions of power, they become
all the more exposed to people’s gaze and even their
slightest failings and lapses are bound to attract people’s
criticism. Let our leaders take a lesson from England,
which passed through the fire of two wars without
a single measure to gag the people’s voice and kept its
civil liberties intact all through.

Recently our worthy Home Minister said many things
against political parties in the Rajya Sabha and sub-
sequently a 4 secret’ circular was circulated by the Congress
that all those who criticise the Government and Pandit
Nehru should be treated as traitors. Pandit Nehru
has, no doubt, in his reply to Acharya Ranga’s letter
of objection, said that the expression was improper. But
mark, he has only said ‘improper’ and not ‘untrue’!
Is this the way of building a consolidated people’s will in
the country? Will it not effect a cleavage among the
people— Congress on the one side and all the rest on the
other? And still it is they who say that others should not

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Bunch of Thoughts

criticise but should, work for unity ! A big Congress leader
recently said that all other political parties should be put
under strict control as otherwise they might gain popularity
and make it difficult for the Congress to win the next
elections ! Then a local Congressman who could not tolerate
this view, retorted openly, “If the Chinese come where is
the possibility of having next elections at all?”

Let the persons at the helm of affairs cry a halt to all
such undemocratic talk. That would be unworthy of a
leadership engaged in war. Let them consider themselves as.
national leaders and not as mere party leaders. Let us all
remind ourselves that the only enemy of all of us is China
and it ill befits us to stoop to mutual hostility, suspicion
and rivalry. Let us hope that our leaders will rise to the
occasion in setting an example in all such matters that go
to build up people's morale.

Danger of Personality Cult

Some people mistake such frank and friendly warnings
to our worthy Prime Minister as indicating want of love
and respect for him. They are totally wrong. They seem
to identify respect with flattery. We respect the Prime
Minister and regard him as a great world figure, but we cannot
flatter him, we cannot accept him as infallible. That
would not be fair to him also. The Communists and such
others shout from housetops that we must all strengthen
Nehru’s hands. Obviously, it is to flatter him and serve
their own ulterior ends. But we say, let us strengthen
Nehru’s heart. If we do that, we will have automatically
strengthened his hands.

Such a c personality cult’ is not only foreign to our
culture and tradition but will also do infinite damage to
national interests. During the Third Battle of Panipat, at
one point Sadashivrao Bhau, the Chief Commander of the
Hindu forces, changed his seat from an elephant to a horse.
The soldiers failing to see him, thought him dead, got
demoralised and broke up. That was because the person of

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Sadashivrao was the so’e point of inspiration and guidance
for the entire array. On the other hand, for twenty years
after Shivaji, Maharashtra did not have any acknowledged-
leader. Sambhaji had been caught, tortured and murdered.
Shahu was in Moghul detention. Rajaram was besieged and
isolated in Jinji. But everyone fought the war as if the
spirit of Swaraj and Shivaji was born in him. It became
truly a people’s war. After twenty years of fighting with
them Aurangazeb died, defeated and broken-hearted. Such
is the world of difference between personality cult and
dedication to an ideal.

The Red Ruse

Thirdly, we should be keenly on the alert about the
threat from inside our own country. There are, as we
know, quite a number of persons amidst us w 7 ho welcome
Chinese aggression. To them the Chinese are the godfathers
.and the Chinese army is a ‘liberation army’. Some of
their topmen have even openly declared that it is Bharat
and not China that is the aggressor. Even now the
■Communists are carrying on virulent propaganda in the border
areas that Bhagawan Sri Krishna has descended on earth
in the form of Chou En-lai to establish ‘Dharmarajya’ here!
They have also collected funds and told the people to
preserve the receipts and show them to Chinese when they
-come so that they will be recognised as friends. Such a
party has been given a clean certificate of being cent per cent
nationalist by our Prime Minister!

There has been a report that the Communists have
tried to indulge in sabotage in Assam. They may try to do
the same in various other parts of the country. But
strangely enough, they are not kept under strict watch and
control. On the other hand, our Government and our
people seem to be taken in by their strategy. It is said there
is a split in the Communist Party, with pro-Peking and
pro-Moscow groups (mind, there is no pro-Bharat group !)
bitterly opposed to each other. No one who knows even

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Bunch of Thoughts-

a bit of the Communist technique will ever believe in that
myth. The so-called split is only a trick to dupe the
people. Their plan is that one group should bolster up the
Prime Minister and his policies so that they can worm
themselves into the confidence of the people in general, and
behind that mask, the other group in secret should go in for
collecting arms and getting trained in guerilla warfare so
that in the course of a few months they may be ready to
rise in revolt throughout the country, particularly in Assam
and Bengal, to break the administration and thus make it
easy for the Chinese to run over the entire country. This
is actually being done. Training in guerilla warfare is
being given.

The Chinese Puzzle

This gives us the clue to the reason behind the sudden
and unexpected cease-fire of the Chinese. They have declared
cease-fire when they were actually victorious and thus-
startled the whole world. A great and amazing feat
it was, that the victor should voluntarily stop fighting and
make a very generous gesture of peace! Various theories
have been advanced to explain this mystery. One theory is
that the Chinese imagined that the people of this country,
so fond of quarrelling with one another, would continue
their quarrels and dissensions as heretofore and that they
would be able to exploit them to conquer the country
easily. But to their surpise they found that the whole of
the country rose as one man with a grim resolve to throw
out the aggressor. This was unexpected to the Chinese.
Therefore they thought better of it and discontinued their
aggression.

A second theory is that the Chinese did not expect
that arms, ammunition and other types of military help
could be flown to Bharat from America and other friendly
countries in so short a time. As a matter of fact, we must
deeply appreciate the alacrity and efficiency with which
American aid was rushed to us. This also took the Chinese

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279

aback, and fearing a smashing counter-attack, they desisted
from making any further advance.

Some, who are out to praise everything that is Chinese
or Russian, say that the Chinese came only to establish
their right over the territory which they claimed to be
theirs. They have not accepted the McMahon Line. They
say that the actual border is somewhere more to the south.
They came up to the border which they considered to
be the right one. In a way they expressed their right and
went back. This is giving the Chinese quite an amount of
credit.

The Deep Game

However, one fact has been ignored. Synchornising
with the aggression of the Chinese, there was a plan for an
uprising by the Communist Party in Bengal. It was to
create such wide disturbances that administration would
break down, chaos would prevail and the Chinese would be
able to take advantage of it to establish themselves from
the Himalayas to Calcutta securely. Somehow this plan
miscarried. Either because the Communists were not
ready, or their hearts failed them at the eleventh hour, or
probably because the people became very alert and
antagonistic to them, they had no courage to step forward
to execute that plan. Whatever the reason, the fact is
that they could not, and therefore did not, act up to the
expectations of the aggressive Chinese forces. As their
plan misfired the Chinese thought they should wait for a
more favourable opportunity, and therefore they have
discontinued the aggression for the time being. When we
piece together this fact with the present strategy of the
Communists here, we get a fairly correct and lurid picture
of the volcanic menace that is simmering underneath the
apparently calm surface of the present Chinese cease-fire.

The Green Danger

The other danger spot in our internal set-up is the

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Bunch of Thoughts

powerful Pakistani fifth column entrenched in strategic
points all over the country. Various types of lethal
weapons are being distributed among the Muslims in the
border areas. Probably, they feel that this is a golden
opportunity for them to revolt, to bring our leaders to their
knees and force them to part with another chunk of land
as before. As a matter of fact, when the Chinese overran
post after post in NEFA area, such Pakistani elements all
over the country were jubilant. They used to exclaim,.
“You are well served” I They are especially emboldened
in view of the recent unholy Pak-China alliance. When
the people and even the Government officers were vacating
Tejpur and other areas, the Muslims alone stayed there
saying that a secret understanding had been reached bet-
ween China and Pakistan to partition Assam between
themselves— the northern portion going to China and the
southern portion to Pakistan and that therefore they were
safe. They were fully roused to the frenzy of 1946—47.
They raised slogans of 4 Pakistan Zindabad and

( Smiling we got Pakistan , fighting we shall take
Bindusthan.) They pillaged and looted the vacated Hindu
houses and shops. So, it is the duty of all citizens includ-
ing the well-meaning Muslims to specially beware that
such fifth column elements are held in check right from
the start and do not get a chance to disturb internal peace
and order which is an absolute prerequisite for building
up our defences.

The one guiding principle while dealing with all such
subversive elements is to treat them on par with the
enemy and put them down with an iron hand. There is an
extremely instructive episode in the Mahabhdrata. When
King Janamejaya performs the Sarpa-yaga (serpent
sacrifice) in revenge for the killing of his father Parikshit
by the serpent Takshaka, Takshaka flees and seeks asylum
with Indra. Then Janamejaya proceeds to bring down Indra

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281

also along with Takshaka into that all-consuming fire
saying—

tTSTw tTST^I^T *rq ! Z T

Such unsparing measures alone will put fear into
the hearts of potential agents and allies of the enemy and
make them behave as loyal citizens.

Appeasement Whets Appetite

Then we have to consider our relations with our neigh-
bour countries especially in the present context. Here
we have to beware of one factor. When we are in a difficult
situation like this, our neighbour Pakistan — which
according to Pandit Nehru was born in hatred and
bloodshed — is likely to bully us. And there is also a
possibility that our leaders may give more and more in a
bid to placate it and make a compromise over Kashmir.
Rajaji and Jayaprakash Narayan have even canvassed
that peace must be made with Pakistan at all costs even
by parting with Kashmir if necessary, so as to forge a
joint front against China. But will it solve the problem?
What does the past history of those elements tell us?
Countless were the experiments made to ‘win their hearts’
by patting their backs and showering concessions upon
them. Finally we even gave them parts of our mother-
land. Even then they were not satisfied. They attacked
Kashmir. To please them we gave one-third of Kashmir.
We also gave them the waters of canals built at our cost.
Over and above it, we gave them nearly eighty five crores
of rupees.

But in return, what have they given us? Under the
terms of Partition, they had to give compensation for the
immovable property that the Hindus had left behind.
The property amounted to hundreds of crores of rupees.
But so far we have not received even a single pie. We
have been giving everything they demand. But have
we ever succeeded in getting anything from them? If
11

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Bunch of Thoughts

we ask them to keep quiet by giving them more and more,
will they stop? If now we give Kashmir, then they may
ask for Assam and then for Bengal. The more we give the
more their appetite gets whetted. So this one-way traffic
must stop. The only basis for talks with Pakistan is to tell
them, “China is a common danger for both Bharat and
Pakistan. If China succeeds neither of us will remain.
Therefore let us stand shoulder to shoulder to face this
common powerful foe.” This must be the only basis for
talks. If we begin to appease them, there will be no end.

Recognise Friends

That brings us to our relations with the Western countries.
There is nothing wrong with the policy of non-alignment
as such. On the contrary, our folly has been that we were
not in fact strictly non-aligned but were oriented more
towards the Communist bloc. When England and France
attacked Egypt over the Suez affair, we were the first to
denounce them in the strongest possible terms. But when
China butchered Tibet we did not even utter a word of protest.
And when Russian tanks rolled into Hungary and crushed
its freedom revolt we even tried to justify that act. Had
we remained truly non-aligned and pointed out our common
devotion to democracy, the West would have looked upon
us as a dependable friend. After all, when we were in
trouble we looked to them and they rushed to our help.
Russia, in spite of all its protestations of friendship for us,
sent us the four MIG planes scheduled to be sent earlier,
several months after the critical hour had passed. Stranger
still, the planes were sent by ship and not by air ! So far we
have also not heard about their having been flown. We
do not know whether the Government calls these developments
as alignment or non-alignment.

Let us only hope the Government will take an objective
view of the problem and not allow high-sounding slogans
and shibboleths to come in the way of arming our
nation to the teeth. We must get arms from wherever we

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283

can have them. If Germany could buy guns in England
on the eve of the First World War and France could sell
tanks to Germany on the eve of the Second World War and
all the countries opposed to Germany including Russia
could receive American military aid during that war, why
should we fight shy of taking arms aid from willing countries
whichever they may be ?

Fortify Trusted Sentinels

There is an important link on our Northern frontier
which we must strengthen. And that is Nepal. From
times immemorial Nepal has been identified with our national
W'ay of life. It is a sovereign State, and we are happy
over this fact. It is small in size and it is our duty to see
that it is not crushed out of existence. Under pressure
from a much bigger power, China, Nepal has accepted in
its moment of weakness the proposal for the Lhasa-Kath-
mar.du Road. It is our duty to see that the independence
and soveignty of Nepal are preserved. Both of us are
facing a common danger. We must respect Nepal’s sove-
reignty and create confidence in its mind about our bona
fides. Its rebels have sought shelter in our territory. This
has been causing much heart-burning in Nepal. It has
given rise to a virulent anti-Bharat propaganda in that
State. We must restrain these rebels and re-establish the
ties of traditional friendship.

Let the defence of our sacred motherland be the first
criterion of all our policies — internal and external. For that,
if it becomes necessary to cross our frontiers let us do it
without the least hesitation. Today the Dalai Lama is in
our midst. Tibetans are still offering stiff resistance to
Chinese forces in their country. This is a factor in our
favour for the liberation of Tibet. Let the Dalai Lama set
up his own emigre Government and declare the indepen-
dence of Tibet. Let us give him all necessary support in
carrying on the struggle for his country’s freedom. With-
out a free and friendly Tibet, all our Northern defences

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become only a mockery- But our Prime Minister says that
such a step would be ‘manifest nonsense*. We cannot
understand why he should be opposed to such a noble
cause— a cause in support of the independence of a down-
trodden people and which is a pre-eminent requisite for our
national security. In fact, our late revered President Dr.
Rajendra Prasad had said that we cannot hope to protect
our frontiers unless we carry the war into the enemy’s
territory and for that, liberation of Tibet is the first military
step.

XVII

Fight to Win

2. the

pht-Laic-plty

Real threat: Crisis of character —Morality from top
downwards— Ideal that inspires — Historic call of Hindu
Nation— Leaders’ dream— Call of realism— Fate of
f unilateral goodness * — Real national strength — Strength
begets friends — A blessing, but when?

I N order that we may mobilise all our internal resources and
liquidate all types of internal forces of subversion and
fight till the enemy is completely vanquished and the yellow
scourge erased from the face of the earth, the one great
and inexhaustible store-house of power that we have to
build up is the sterling national character of our people.
Without that, any amount of external aid and equipment
will be of no avail.

The Real Threat

We know that in the defeat of the democratic forces
in China and victory of the Communist revolutionaries, one
of the most decisive factor was the e characterlessness ’
of the democratic forces. America tried its best to protect
that democracy. They helped it with millions of dollars

285

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Bunch of Thoughts

and huge quantities of arms and ammunition of the latest
type to equip the army so that it may deal effectively with
the Communist revolt. But history tells us that even
officers in the army, for the paltry gain of a few chips,
sold the American arms to the rebels, with the result that
the rebels became very well equipped and the nationalist
army was defeated.

Nearer home, there are countless such instances of
characterlessness. To cite an instance, it is widely known
that Pakistanis are hatching a conspiracy in Assam. Many
Pakistanis from East Bengal have infiltrated and are still
infiltrating into Assam. They have settled down there.
This is a conspiracy to make Assam a Muslim-majority
area and later join it with Pakistan. But our Government
is not willing to face this fact. It has not opened its
eyes even though we have been sounding a note of
alarm from as far back as 1950. Now it asks, “How
to recognise those Pakistanis?” Some persons in Assam
came forward and prepared a list of all the Pakistanis
who had illegally entered in recent years, with their names,
addresses etc., and submitted it to the Government. The
Government appointed an officer to go into that list and
report his findings. He made enquiries. His report was,
“This list is all false. Only a very few have come from
Pakistan.” Why did he report in that way? It came to be
known later that he had taken a huge bribe and reported
in that manner.

Lord Attlee, the reputed Labour leader of England,
says in an article that the Government machinery in our
country has become corrupt to the core. It is in such
countries, he says, that the Communists succeed in subversion.
He had asked a prominent person of one of the Asian
countries whether there was any threat of Communist
subversion in their country, to which that person gave
the significant reply, “ Our administration is not corrupt
and therefore we have no such fear.” This warning
from an eminent statesman of a mature nation such

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287

as England must make us pause and ponder over this fatal
internal corrosion.

The Basic Malady

Thus, crisis of character is a very serious affair.
We have to grapple with it, not merely by words or by
criticising others but by going to its very roots. Mere
criticism will take us nowhere. If we call X, Y or Z
names, how is it going to correct our behaviour? On
the contrary, it will give us an additional bad quality of
calling others names. How then can we eradicate this
demon of immorality from ourselves?

It is well known that a person becomes immoral and
corrupt to the extent his selfishness has the upper hand
in his life. The greater the selfishness, the more a person
is prone to take recourse to unhealthy methods for fulfilling
his self-interest. If a man is unselfish, he will never go
in for evil and his character will not suffer. He will be
an honest man.

Today selfishness has grown. Every man wants some-
thing more than what he has. He does not care whether
the way in which he gets it is good or bad. Often it is
bad, and therefore there is crisis of character. So we have
to control the selfishness of man. This is an extremely
difficult job. Constituted as we are, some little selfishness is
bound to be there. We are not all sadhus. We have not
given up our families, wearing only a koupinam. It is not
possible for us. So far as the whole society is concerned,
that will not also be conducive to the welfare of society.
A little selfishness will remain, to maintain our body and
our family and to give them at least some happiness com-
patible with modern times. Let us not, therefore, think
ill of any person who desires to lead an ordinarily comfor-
table life. But then, that is the limit. If a person goes
beyond that and indulges in selfishness to the detriment of
the interests of the people as a whole, then certainly that
is reprehensible.

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Bunch of Thoughts

Morality from Top Downwards

How to control this self-interest from running amuck?
Suppose we advise all people and give them lectures, will
it do? Will Sadachar Samitis and mass pledges in public
achieve that miracle? Such lectures on morality and
pledges have never corrected a person’s morals. Not only
that, many persons who lecture on morality and administer
pledges are such that we should not look into their
lives !

Once I met a Sadhu. He told me that he was giving
lectures to the clerks and other lower staff in Government
offices on ‘character’, on how not to be corrupt and so on.
I said, “But, how will you succeed in your mission? You
advise a chaprasi who may be taking a bribe of a few
paise. Can you not realise that the chaprasi is a poor man
unable even to feed all members of his family twice a day ?
If in that condition, he stoops to taking a little bribe, we
can only pity him, though of course we cannot justify his
action. So, go higher up, lecture to those at the top. See
if they can be corrected.” Then the Sadhu said, “But the
higher-ups are good!”

I said, “I shall give you an example. There is a
gentleman in the galaxy of our political leaders, who is
adored and loved by the country. Once, on the eve of the
last elections, he was invited to a city to be presented with
a purse for the purpose of elections. A number of big
businessmen and industrialists had formed a committee
and collected a big sum of money. At a grand function,
with all those speeches extolling the person and the party,
they offered him the purse. He got up to reply. He said,
H know that all these people that have assembled here
are indulging in black-marketing and the money they have
offered to me is born out of sin. It is sinful even to touch
it. I feel that all such black-marketeers should be flogged
publicly and even hanged!’ All this he spoke in a very
high moral tone, quietly pocketed the purse and went
away! Fortunately, the Sadhu also knew this incident.

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289

Then I told him, “Go to such high-ups and correct
them first.”

If the topmen are morally upright, then morality
will trickle down to the lowest stratum of society and
general good character will be the result. You cannot
build good character from the bottom to the top. Character
has always to be built up at the top first. On the other
hand, physical comforts have to be provided from the
bottom. Feed those who are at the lowest rung of the
ladder of our social life, who are physically working hard
day and night and leading an existence which is certainly
an insult to the dignity of our society. Let the people at
the top go without a meal, I don’t mind. But that is how
society should be rebuilt and revitalised— physical needs
from the bottom upwards and morality from the top
downwards.

The Lining Ideal

It is a matter of common experience that character
and morality are wanting even in the very high strata
of our national life. Those in the higher strata of life are
intelligent and educated. They know w 7 hat is morality
and what is immorality. They can even deliver excellent
sermons on morality. Then, what are we going to teach
them by words ? We can achieve nothing by merely
advising such persons.

Can we improve the moral standards of our people by
taking recourse to legislation? Take the case of Prohi-
bition. It is in force in many States. But in all those
States, illicit distillation has become a flourishing cottage
industry! Hence, mere legislation is a useless instrument
for bettering the morals.

In fact, there is only one way by which selfishness
can be restrained. Give the man an ideal to work for, to
live for and to die for. Then that person, in his devotion
to that ideal, will be able to control the pulls of his self-
interest and build up a better character. There is no

290

Bunch of Thoughts

other way. Give the people an ideal, high and holy,
an ideal which naturally resonates in their hearts, throbs
in their blood and which has been with them for
generations. Then even the ordinary man in the street will be
able to feel the rise of devotion and character in him. Such an
inspiring ideal is the realisation of the glory and greatness of
our sacred Hindu Rashtra.

“I am a child of this great Hindu Nation. For
generations, my great forefathers have striven to make this the
greatest and noblest nation— an ideal nation of ideal men —
on the face of the earth. I, too, will live and strive for the
same goal.” — This is the natural impulse that we have inhe-
rited. We feel it in our blood. If this natural and sublime
urge is roused then our people will be able to rise above
their selfish pulls and manifest chaste national character
in their day-to-day life.

The Vision that Inspires

Even in the present times of national crisis we cannot
afford to ignore this content of idealism. Let us not forget
that it was on the battle-field of Kurukshetra, when war-
drums were beating, trumpets were blowing and Arjuna was
standing in the centre of the two armies, that Sri Krishna
taught him the eternal and inspiring message of selfless
action in the cause of dharma and spurred him to match-
less valour and victory. It is only when a hero is inspired
with the vision of an ideal that he will be able to put forth
the best in him. He should be clear in his mind about
the life values for which he is to fight and die if need be.
Talk of economic plans and industrial glory cannot stir the
soul to suffer and sacrifice. Dry and disparaging descrip-
tions of our motherland as ‘snow-bound’, Tmfit for
human habitation’, ‘not a blade of grass growing there*
etc., will only kill the spirit of the people who will then see
no difference even if such a piece of land is occupied by
the enemy. So it is absolutely essential that the eternal
■and inspiring call of devotion to our holy motherland and

Figbtt to Win — II

291

our national ideals is engraved in the heart of every son of
this soil.

All our valiant freedom fighters in the past and in
modern times were inspired with the living vision of Hindu
Rashtra. That was the only effective rallying cry to rouse
our masses to action from one corner of the country to the
other. And whenever that vision was blurred or lost
sight of, the people too relapsed into inactivity and
servility.

The lesson of the 1857 War of Independence is before
us. The great leaders of that revolution, at the very first
stroke, captured Delhi and released the Moghul Badshah
who had become a mere tool in the hands of the British.
They reinstated him on the throne as the free Emperor
and declared him the leader of the War of Independence
in a bid to mobilise the support of those sections of the
people who still owed loyalty to the Delhi throne. But
this step made the Hindu masses suspect that the atrocious
Moghul rule, which was smashed by the heroic efforts and
sacrifices of Guru Govind Singh, Chhatrasal, Shivaji and
such others would once again be revived and foisted on
them which would be a far greater tragedy than the English
rule. The Hindu mind, which was inspired with the hope
of Hindu Swaraj looking at the great Hindu generals like
Nanasaheb Peshwa, Tatya Tope, Rani Lakshmibai and
Rana Kunvar Singh lost its urge to fight. Historians say
that this is one of the decisive factors which ultimately led
to the collapse of that revolution.

It is only when the people are inspired with that age-old
national vision that it is possible to make them rise to
heights of selflessness, sacrifice and heroism and to forge
them into a single living national entity from one end of
the land ' to the other and build up an unassailable national
strength. And when we do that, we will be able to humble
not one but ten Chinas!

292

Bunch of Thoughts

Dreamers Wake Up

One more serious impediment that we have to clear
up is our mental reservation regarding building up
national strength. The very idea of strength was an
anathema to our leaders all these days. The mental
climate of our leadership was somehow averse to it. They
believed entirely in pious platitudes. Even recently some
of our responsible leaders indulged in talks of unilateral
disarmament which would be nothing but unilateral
suicide ! At least since 1954 our leaders have been aware,
on their own admission, of the fact of the naked aggression
of the Chinese. But they continued to live in the
dreamland of Panchsheel. During ■ these eight years we
could have equipped ourselves very well and made our
defences impregnable. But today we are having a small
army, fewer arms and still fewer bullets. Production of
bombers, fighter planes, tanks, military transport etc., was
totally neglected. There is not one anti-aircraft gun of
sufficient range with us. And we are talking of disarma-
ment ! How can we disarm when we have no arms at
all?

We must have read in papers that our ordnance
factories manufactured coffee crushers and plastic bags.
They also produced a truck with a capacity less than that
of even an ordinary truck and called it £ Shaktiman ’ !
And the very first sample of 4 Shaktiman’ collapsed at its
first trial! But now it seems our leaders have learnt a
lesson at the cost of so many precious lives of our soldiers.
Our Prime Minister has frankly confessed that China has
awakened us to a world of reality from a dreamland of our
own creation. At one place he gave expression to his new
realisation saying, “We cannot survive without strength.
If it comes to that we will fight even with lathis. ” And
our Home Minister Sri Lai Bahadur Shastri said, “We
will no more be caught napping”, which only means that
they were napping till now ! It is some solace that, though
late, they have realised the truth that strength alone

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293

counts in this world of conflict and that the world understands
only the language of strength. Let us pray God that
their present realisation will not be short-lived.

As a matter of fact, this is an elementary principle of
life which our ancients had realised long long ago.
Manusmriti says:

ff TTCffiT tP? Wm TO ^4% 1

(It is out of the fear of strength that society is sustained.)
And they also lived in the light of that truth. Though
they preached and practised the highest philosophy of
human brotherhood they never ignored the hard realities
of the world in which they had to live and move. Some-
times we hear our leaders saying that traditionally we have
always been a peace-loving and non-violent people. True,
but it was not the peace at the cost of honour, it was not
the peace of the grave. In fact, passive submission to
humiliation was locked down upon as the sign of unmanliness.
We had in the past set up the highest standards of valour
and heroism and produced some of the greatest generals
and conquerors the world has ever known, who fought
and killed and carried on fierce battles relentlessly to
establish peace wherein dharma- reigned supreme.

Philosophy of Suicide

We are really amazed that even at this hour, there
are eminent personalities who continue to think and preach
in the same old strain. Even now they argue, “We
are a people of peace and non-violence. If the Chinese
come, we will only stand before them as a peace army.
What will they do? After all, it requires two to fight. If
we do not fight, then with whom will they fight?” A
good argument indeed, especially appealing to those who
have not sufficient guts to fight!

It is true that two are required for a fight. But it is
not necessary that both should be fighters. It is sufficient
if one strikes and the other receives the blow! And again.

294

Bunch of Thoughts

if we remain peaceful and behave well with others, is it a
necessary corollary that others also will behave likewise
with us? Is it our experience of the world?

Fate of Unilateral Goodness

See our own examples. When Islam was first born,
the King of Gujarat came to know from traders that a
new faith had arisen in Arabia. He felt curious to know
what it was and asked his traders to bring some of the
learned men of that faith in order to know more about it.
Some moulvis came to Gujarat. Our pandits held discussions
with them. They found that it was a faith that inspired
man to pray to God, though it had no philosophy as
such. Therefore the pandits and the King said, “It does
not matter if you have no philosophy. If you can guide
the individual to pray to God, your faith is good. We
wish well of it. Let all the people of Arabia go Godward
on account of this great new faith that your founder
Pygamber has propagated.” That is, we respected the
faith, the moulvis and the founder. We did not say that
it was something trash which had to be destroyed. No
Hindu will ever say that.

There is the other instance. In the South, in the
kingdom of Madurai, there was an Arab Muslim merchant.
As he was a person of good character and great qualities,,
the king made him his minister. Even today, some
Muslims have been made ministers. But that is done with
an eye on the Muslim vote! That was not the consideration
before the king, because he did not depend upon the
votes of Muslims to bolster him up! Only out of respect
for the qualities of that man, he was made a minister. We
have thus behaved with Muslims with respect, love and
fraternal affection.

But, how did they reciprocate ? Their history of the past one
thousand two hundred years, full of incidents of destruction,
depradation and all sorts of barbaric atrocities, is there before
our eyes. The present-day large Muslim population in our

Fight to Win— II

295

country is one of the results of the fatal devastation that
they wrought all over the land. Not only the broken
monuments but these pieces of a broken society also are
equally an evidence of their vandalism. What has our good
behaviour towards the Muslim faith and the Muslim people
brought us? Nothing but desecration of our holy places
and enslavement of our people.

Face the Reality

Take the case of China. For more than two thousand
years, ever since the Buddhist influence entered China, there
has been a regular intercourse of learned men and a sort
of fraternisation. Our modern leaders also picked up the
same thread, as it were, and raised the slogan of £ Hindi
Chini Bhai Bhai\ They pursued this policy even to the
extent of renouncing our moral responsibility in the case
of Tibet. We renounced it, and in a way offered Tibet on
a platter to the all-grabbing China. We have been really
faithless to Tibet. In fact, China did not turn faithless to
us, as there was never any question of putting our faith
in them. On the other hand, it is we who have betrayed
the trust that Tibet had reposed in us. We committed a
great sin. God only knows how we can atone for it! We
committed this sin only to call China ‘Bhai’. To this
extent we made fraternisation with China. How has it
responded to our fraternal attitude? By attacking our
frontiers! Such a one-sided good behaviour in this matter-
of-fact world does not seem to yield any fruits.

Let us now turn to the character of the Chinese and
see whether it is true that they will not cut us down as
grass if we keep quiet, as some say. When the present
Communist Government came to power in China, they
massacred many people in order to eliminate opposition to
their rule. As reported in those days, the number of
people they liquidated was about ninety-six lakhs. Can any man
in his senses believe that if a Government, which is head-
ed by people who in order to slake their thirst for power

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Bunch of Thoughts

can indulge in the massacre of their own countrymen,
flesh of their flesh and blood of their blood, to the tune
of about one crore, sends its armies into our country,
those armies will go back without killing us just because we
refuse to fight?

We have, therefore, to realise that in order to meet
all such brutal challenges of this world and come out
victorious, strength — solid, invincible national strength —
alone can help us.

Source of Soldier’s Strength

In all such grave crises our armies will have to be
there in the forefront to bear the brunt cheerfully and
courageously. And especially, the incomparable valour
and bravery of our soldier on the battle-field fills our
heart with confidence, pride and joy. But when such a
soldier looks back, what should he see? Should he see a
disintegrated and unpatriotic people, all indulging in their
own selfishness and scramble for power? If this is what
the soldier sees, will he be inspired to fight and lay down
his life? Let him see a consolidated patriotic people
behind him. Let him feel the confidence that whatever
the army requires, this steel-willed and well-organised peo-
ple from Kashmir to Kanyakumari is ever ready to fulfil
it. If men are required, men will be forthcoming. If
various other necessary items are to be supplied there, all
the supplies will come in spite of any hardship that the
people may be put to. With the confidence that the whole
of the people is backing him, every soldier will feel that his
strength, his fortitude and his capability to fight has be-
come a hundredfold, and he will come out victorious.

Strength Begets Friends

It is only when we acquire the strength to stand firm
in the face of adversity that friends also will rush to our
.aid. Why should they help if we ourselves are unfit and
not firm enough to stand? Even if they want to help, how

Fight to Win — II

297 “

and whom should they help? Even now, when we made a.
feeble attempt to stand on Gur own legs we got help from
so many quarters. Help came from America about whom
our leaders rarely said a kind word. Help came from
Britain though we had bitterly criticised them over the
Suez affair. Help came from West Germany and many
other countries. Let us at least now have a word of grati-
tude for them.

A Blessing, but When?

In view of so many healthy trends set in motion in
our national life by the Chinese invasion, we often hear that
it has been a blessing in disguise. It is a fact that foreign
aggression affords a golden opportunity for a nation to
purge itself of corroding tendencies like selfishness, inter-
necine feuds, separatist pulls etc., and to recast itself into*
a single unified and purified entity. The sense of imminent
danger spurs the individuals in the nation to rise above
all other petty feelings, to merge their interests in the
supreme national good and stand as living limbs of a colossal-
national personality. But all this can be achieved and
made enduring only if w T e have the will, the wisdom to grasp
the great chance offered to us and the capacity to profit
from it. Without that preparation on our part even the
blessing may prove to be a mere shock and a waste and
nothing more.

Once the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi, appeared before
a beggar, blessed him and asked him to receive a shower
of gold. But she told him that the gold would turn to
dust if it fell on the ground. The beggar eagerly spread
his bag holding it with both his hands. The goddess filled
the bag with gold sufficient to keep his family in affluence-
for generations to come. But the beggar was greedy and
requested her to put a handful of gold more. The goddess
showered one more handful and disappeared. But the bag.
gave way because of the weight, all the gold fell on the
ground and immediately turned to dust ! One requires;.

298

Bunch of Thoughts

worth and strength even to make use of the blessings of the
Almighty !

Tending the Roots

So also is the case of nations when 4 blessed ’ with foreign
aggression. It is here that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh comes up to play the role of creating the necessary
will and competence in our people to turn this difficulty
into an opportunity. The Sangh has been straining every
nerve and fibre to rouse and mobilise jana shakli by
imparting life-giving ideals, qualities and character required
for a powerful, positive and perennial national life. We
.are confident that every swayamsevak of our organisation
will be found in the forefront when the hour for people’s
action and sacrifice comes. At the same time, we do not
want to come forward as a group because in times of war
there is no necessity of any priesthood of any group or
party. It would be also highly improper to parade one’s
sacrifices and sufferings. Because to offer one’s all, even
his dearest possessions, at the altar of the motherland is
the first and foremost duty of every son of this soil. And
it is that life-spirit that we have been inculcating in the people
■through the Sangh since its very inception.

XVIII

Nation at 'War*'

/.

view eza.

Self-respect , nation’s life-breath— Superiority of ‘ man’
over £ machine ’ — Myth exploded— Nation’s heroic
mettle— Guideline for national policies— Destroying
the real war-potential — Akhand Bharat , only solution—
UNO in true colours— Rule of international friendship
— Kashmir , a closed chapter— Welcome bigger war .

T HE recent war with Pakistan has as if electrified the-
entire length and breadth of our land and inspired the-
hearts and minds of millions of our countrymen with a new
purpose and a new confidence as nothing else had done during,
the last eighteen years after the quitting of the British.

Self-Respect, Nation’s Life-Breath

Ever since the Britishers quit this land we had been
subject to growing depredations and inroads by Pakistan
on the one hand and China on the other. Times without
number we had to gulp down insults and humiliations at
their hands. And, especially the ignominious defeat that
we suffered at the hands of the Chinese in 1962 was-
corroding the people’s morale. Serious doubts and.

* In the wake of Pakistani aggression in August, *65.

299

300

Bunch of Thoughts

■apprehensions had begun to creep into people’s mind
whether our country was capable at all of protecting its
-integrity and sovereignty from the onslaughts of the
-aggressor. People’s hearts were torn with agony to see our
great nation thus becoming an object of pity and ridicule
:in the eyes of the whole world.

No wonder the present experience of being able to deal
.a crushing blow to the aggressor, to be victorious and be
able even to launch a successful counter-offensive has
breathed new life into the drooping spirits of the nation.
The nation's pulse has been quickened by an unprecedented
upsurge of patriotic pride and self-respect. Verily this is
the first and the foremost lesson that the war has taught us.
'The spirit of national honour and self-respect— swabhimana—
is the life-breath of nation’s freedom — swdtantrya . That
is the source from which we can tap the inexhaustible
potentialities of our nation. The all-round resurgence that
we witness today is because we have decided to stand up
in vindication of the freedom and honour of our sacred
:motherland. It has touched the inmost chord of our
national being and brought forth the human element of
this land in its pristine glory.

Potent Men Vs Patton Tanks

It has once again proved the irresistible valour and
virility of the children born and bred in the bosom of our
.great motherland. The way our jawans crushed scores
•of Patton Tanks — considered invincible — as so many empty
match-boxes and reduced the much-vaunted armoured
divisions of the enemy to shambles has made many,
•even its Western masters, sit up and ponder. They have
■set up an ‘ experts committee’ to go into the causes of the
debacle that their arms (and their prestige too!) suffered.
But they have ignored the simple fact that in the final
.analysis, it is the e man ’ and not the c machine ’ that counts.
Our superior £ man ’ has proved to be far superior to the
superior ‘machine’ of the enemy. I for one never had

Nation at War — I

301

any doubt about the supreme quality of our men. How
can they be otherwise, being the children of those chaste-
and death-defying women who chose to immolate themselves,
willingly in the flames of jowhar rather than allow the
enemies to touch them?

A Myth Exploded

Not only in physical heroism but in skill and strategy*
as well, our army has displayed its traditional excellence
and made shortwork of all the aggressive designs of the
enemy. Many were surprised to see our armies crossing:
the cease-fire and the so-called international border and
marching into the territory under enemy’s control in Lahore
and other sectors. They expected that our armies would
fight a defensive war remaining within our own borders.
But no one who knows the first principles of war strategy
will allow one’s own territory to be turned into a theatre of'
war and invite devastation. The battle for the freedom
and integrity of the country has always to be fought deep
inside the aggressor’s camp. That is the essence of a
successful war strategy. Truly has it been said, “Offence is
the best form of defence.” Our armies could bring laurels
of victory to our country and cover themselves with undying
glory solely because they have followed this time-honoured
dictum.

Our jawans have in these few days smashed the myth
assiduously built up by the British, and believed by the*
world and even by many of our countrymen, that we are a
meek and weak lot who have always been at the mercy
of any and every freebooter who chose to trample upon us.
It was this myth that made even Gandhiji remark, “An
average Hindu is a coward and an average Muslim is a.
bully.” In fact, no society which could give birth to a
Rama, a Krishna, a Pratap, a Shivaji and a Ranjit Singh
could be considered as anything but virile and valiant. A
distorted presentation of our national history depicting all-
such great national heroes as either mythological or as only

302

Bunch of Thoughts

local chieftains and naming only some sections of our
people as martial races had so far misrepresented the true
heroic ring of our national character. Our valiant jawans
have given the lie direct to that mischievous propaganda
and proved that every son of this soil inherits the blood of
those peerless ancestors. They have projected before the
world the real mighty image of Bharat Mata with Her
millions of arms raised to strike down all evil forces on the
face of the earth.

Let us pay our grateful homage to all those noble
martyrs in all ranks of our great army who by their valour
and self-sacrifice have brought this great day for our
■country. Let not this moment be one of sorrow over their
death. Those who have fought and sacrificed their lives
•on the battle-field are bound to reach the highest state of
bliss hereafter. Why then should anyone feel sorry for
•such a glorious martyrdom? On the contrary, their sacred
memory should be a constant inspiration for all of us to
imbibe their spirit of supreme self-sacrifice and burning
resolve in the cause of safeguarding the freedom of our holy
motherland.

The Unsung Saga

The way even the common man in those border areas
has reacted to the enemy’s challenge is no less inspiring.
The people there stuck to their places. The story of heroic
young men working untiringly day and night as a second
line of defence, of hundreds of truck drivers in complete
disregard of danger to their lives rushing right up to
the front the necessary articles to our jawans, their endless
toil, suffering and even death— ‘unsung, unwept and
unhonoured ’ — is a saga that can adorn the finest leaf of
any war literature. About them, an army officer feelingly
remarked, “We, the army men, have at least the consolation
that if we die our names will shine as martyrs and the
Government will give pension to our families. But these
civilians standing shoulder to shoulder with us and facing

Nation at War— I

303

the enemy bullets have none of these prospects. Verily their
spirit of self-sacrifice has excelled ours. ”

Leadership in New Shape

The reason why our Government could key the pitch
of nation’s morale to such inspiring heights is because of the
healthy change that has come over their policies vis-a-vis
the aggressor from one of surrender to one of self-respect.
The entire nation is filled with pride and joy at their grit
and manliness. Our Prime Minister’s firm stand, in the face
of various pressures from UNO and other powerful countries,,
not to compromise our national freedom and honour, and his-
resolute reply to the Chinese * three-day ultimatum ’ that we
will not be cowed down by such threats but will fight with,
all our might, has steeled the nation’s heart.

National Self-Interest, the Guideline

The second lesson that has been brought home to us is-
that in order to protect our national freedom and honour
the one supreme guideline for all our national policies,
internal as well as external, should be enlightened national
self-interest. The present experience has proved to the
hilt that no other factor — neither high-sounding slogans
nor the ‘goodwill’ of world bodies nor even the ‘friendship’
of other countries -will come to our rescue and that we
alone will be called upon to bear the full responsibility
of protecting our freedom. All our policies hereafter must
be recast in that new light.

Let us consider our relations with Pakistan from this
angle. Now, our Government has agreed to a cease-fire in
anticipation of an honourable and lasting settlement with
that intractably hostile neighbour. The firmness of our
Government in staying on the line our valiant forces
have reached with so much sacrifice is indeed reassuring.
The line of actual control should be confirmed as the line of
cease-fire. That is how the UNO itself had decided the
cease-fire line when Pakistan had aggressed into Kashmir in

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Bunch of Thoughts

1947. We should unequivocally tell the UNO to apply the
-same yardstick as it had applied then. The question of
withdrawing even an inch from our present positions simply
does not arise.

However, I feel our army should have been allowed to
press forward in its victorious march and capture Lahore,
Rawalpindi, Karachi and liberate the whole of Kashmir by
the time U Thant came to Delhi and before agreeing to
•cease-fire. Then our position would have' been immensely
stronger and matters would have straightened out as they

ought to have been. Our national prestige also would

have shot up much higher.

^Clarity in Objectives

During the present struggle we often find our policy-
makers at the centre declaring that our purpose is only to
destroy the ‘war-potential’ of the enemy and not to occupy
his territory. Today, doubtless, our armies have given

• a smashing blow to Pakistan’s war-machine. The enemy
tanks, jets and radars have been pounded. But Pakistan
is bound to make up its losses and rearm itself. For,
‘war-potential’, as meaning the store of arms and ammuni-
tion, is a thing that can be rebuilt any number of times

The ‘war-potential’ of Germany, for example, was
completely destroyed during the First World War. But

within hardly a couple of decades Germany again built up
its terrible war-machine and plunged the world in the
Second World War.

In the present case, Pakistan’s war-potential is entirely
a gift from countries like America and England which
find in Pakistan a willing pawn in their overall global
military strategy. We are already reading in papers that
.arms and ammunition are being rushed to Pakistan from
Turkey, Iran and such other countries, which are obviously
.acting only as indirect channels for the flow of American
.arms to that country. The destruction of Pakistan’s war-
potential would, in the circumstance, mean destroying the

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305

combined war-potential of America and ±m gland. The
impracticability of such a proposition 1 s quite obvious.

Strike at the Root

Further, the policy of £ destroying the war-potential ’
ignores a basic fact of human nature. A person does not
Indulge in violence or aggression merely because he is armed
but because he is driven by an evil propensity. And as
long as that evil propensity persists, he is bound to arm
himself again and again and prove a menace to the welfare
of others. The history of aggressive nations the world over
only bears out this truth.

Now, how 7 is the evil propensity to be eliminated?
We often hear our present-day leaders saying that we have
no quarrel with ‘evil men’ as such, but with only their
^ evil mentality’. But, £ evil mentality’ is not something
which is tangible, which can be caught hold of and
destroyed. The evil propensities invariably manifest them-
selves in the form of an evil person or a group of such
persons. And it becomes inevitable that in order to
eradicate evil we should do away with its supports i.e„,
those evil men. If separation of evil nature from man
was possible, Sri Rama would have destroyed only the evil
propensity in Ravana— for whose other virtues he had the
highest regard — and allowed him to live a good life! And
again, there would have been no need for Sri Krishna to
kill Kamsa or make the Pandavas slay the Kauravas. But
that did not happen.

As the story goes, when Rama was cutting off the heads of
the ten-headed Ravana and breaking up his bows one after
another i.e., his ‘war-potential’, he would grow another head
and take up another bow and resume fighting as before. It was
only when Rama struck Ravana’s heart— the seat of his evil
nature— that the Rakshasa was laid low and his dreaded evil
reign came to an end. The story is a reminder of the hard fact
of this world that it is inevitable to annihilate the support
the evil persons— if we have to do away with evil.

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Bunch of Thoughts

Redeem Pledge of Complete Independence

However, this does not mean that we are coveting
others’ land. For, 6 Pakistan ’ is surely not a foreign land
to us. ‘Pakistan’ is only a recent creation of political
machinations. Since times immemorial, those areas have
formed integral parts of our motherland. It was on the
banks of the sacred Ravi at Lahore that Congress, under
the Presidentship of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, pledged
itself to achieve complete independence of the country.
How then can the hoisting of our flag in Lahore and other
parts of Pakistan be interpreted as coveting others’ land?
In fact, our fight for independence can be deemed to have
come to a successful close only when we liberate all those
areas now under enemy occupation.

Immediately we say this, there are many who feel
aghast and exclaim, “What will happen to the Muslims
residing there?” But they forget that this is not a religious
war between Hindus and Muslims. Ayub Khan is, in fact,
tyrannising over his own co-religionists, especially in
NWFP, Baluchistan and East Bengal, and has reduced
them to second-class citizens. The people of NWFP and
their leader Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan have always been
with Bharat. They were forced to join Pakistan much
against their wish. The Bengali Muslims in East Bengal,
groaning under the heels of Punjabi Muslims who dominate
the entire State machinery in Pakistan, are already in
revolt.

Reunification of those parts with Bharat would therefore
be a welcome development and an act of liberation
for them. They may well be Muslims by religion but they
can live happily as honourable citizens just as other
Muslims already here who are enjoying all the rights and
privileges due to a citizen, in the single, democratic and
unified Bharat. History bears testimony to the fact that
Bharat, the cradle-land of religious generosity, has always

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307

welcomed and assured all religious groups a free, honourable
-and secure life. Even in the Vijayanagar and Maratha
Empires which rose to defend our national freedom from
Muslim onslaughts, Muslims were in some of the highest
positions of trust and responsibility.

UNO in True Colours

While pursuing our national objectives, the one
deceptive pitfall that we have to avoid is attaching undue
importance to what the so-called world bodies will say.
All such ‘ world bodies’ and ‘world opinions’ stand
thoroughly exposed in their true colours today. The UNO
and the Commonwealth have proved to be blatantly
partial towards Pakistan. They have only repeated the
ignoble role they played in 1948 of equating the aggressor
with the aggressed. That the UNO is only an arena of
power-politics for the big powers has been proved once
again. The UNO, which did not so much as open its lips
when Pakistan sent its armed saboteurs inside Kashmir in
thousands or even when it marched its armies across the
international boundary into Bharat in Chhamb-Jaurian
sector, suddenly became conscious of ‘ danger to world
peace ’ when our armies, as a defence-measure marched
into Lahore sector in Pakistan ! There is no doubt that if,
by chance, Pakistan had succeeded in its aggressive designs,
the UNO or the other powers which are now shouting in
the name of world peace, would have then coolly slept over
the whole affair. Probably, America and England had
even fondly hoped that their stooge Pakistan would have
an easy walk-over and within a matter of days capture
Delhi itself.

Even in future, Pakistan may well attempt to send
infiltrators and UNO cannot be expected to behave better
than heretofore. No sane man, much less the policy-makers
of our country can repose an iota of trust in UNO, which
has proved itself so utterly unworthy of the august name
it bears. The total disregard for truth and justice— nay.

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Bunch of Thoughts

the active connivance with the aggressor— which this body
has exhibited, is unbecoming in the extreme. Having shut
its eyes to the glaring fact of the eighteen -year-old aggres-
sion by Pakistan, the UNO has verily forfeited its right to
speak in the name of peace and justice.

The Rule of Friendship

The policy of America in trying to bolster up a
barbarous theocratic military dictatorship as against the
biggest secular democracy and the most peace-loving
country in the world is deplorable in the extreme. The
way our Western ‘friends’ in general have behaved towards
us and even Russia which has so far kept silent about
condemning Pakistan as an aggressor, has only proved that
it is because we had remained weak all these years we stand
friendless in the world today. For, the weak are always a
liability and a burden and not an asset to their friends.
Naturally, the strong do not desire the friendship of the
weak except to exploit the latter. Once we become
powerful and decide to pursue all policies so as to suit our
enlightened national self-interest backed by a strong-willed
five-hundred-million-strong nation, then all those nations
which are now' siding with Pakistan in the hope of keeping
down Bharat with its help and establishing their influence
in both the weak countries, will be forced to align themselves
with Bharath in their own interest.

Proving the Fact

Even now the will and nerve that we displayed a little
in sticking to the path of national interest has set the
doubting Thomases and the imperialistic intriguers in the
world to think afresh over the Kashmir issue. For
our part, so far as the constitutional requirements are
concerned, Kashmir’s integration with Bharat was complete
and final when the Maharaja of Kashmir signed the Instru-
ment of Accession and the National Conference, the people’s
representative body there, fully endorsed it. The argument

Nation at War — I

309

is often advanced that we did not care for the same
constitutional propriety of the ruler's approval while
integrating Hyderabad and Junagadh with Bharat Though
it is a fact that the Muslim Nawabs of these States were
opposed to merger in Bharat, the people there were wholly
in favour of it. They were, in fact, in revolt against the
rulers. But, in the case of Kashmir, as already noted, not
only the Maharaja but the entire people through their
representative body had unequivocally declared their
wish to join Bharat. So, viewed from whatever aspect,
Kashmir’s integration with Bharat is irrevocable and no
longer negotiable.

We should therefore firmly tell the mediating powers
that the only question that remains is the vacation by
Pakistan of its aggression from parts of Kashmir which it
had illegally and forcibly occupied in 1947. We should not
•enter into any other discussion, not even seeking an assu-
rance from the UNO that there will not be any further
aggression by Pakistan. In the past all such assurances
have been found to be meaningless. Even in the present,
the UNO has, in spite of all its solemn assurances, failed to
•check the armed infiltrators or the regular army of
Pakistan from entering Kashmir. And if for implementing
its assurance in future the stationing of foreign troops is
implied, then there cannot be anything more disgraceful
for a great country like ours than to allow foreign troops
to be stationed on our soil for the protection of our
boundaries. To exhibit any sign of slackening of will at
this hour and allow once again the foreign powers to play
their dirty game of power-politics would seriously affect
the splendid morale of our people and undo all the
beneficial effects that have accrued to us by the limitless
suffering and self-sacrifice of our jawans on the battle-field.
We should not lose on the diplomatic front what we have
gained on the military front.

In this connection, I feel our Prime Minister ought not
to have consented to go to Tashkent for talks. Because

310

Bunch of Thoughts

Russia, by calling Bharat and Pakistan together, has put
the aggressor and the victim of aggression on the same
footing. After all, what is there to talk? With Pakistan
continuing in its bellicose mood and trying to impose a
solution by force, what useful purpose can be served by
talking to them? Until and unless Pakistan accepts the
fact that Kashmir is an integral part of Bharat nothing can
come out of such talks. Or if something does come out it
will only be adverse to our interests.

Settle Once for All

The danger of a fresh attack by Pakistan is still there.
It is now busy trying to turn the present cease-fire into a
camouflage and augment its forces. It has known, though
at a heavy price, our weapons, military strategy, our
strength and our weaknesses. It is bound to take a lesson
from the present experience, make up all its deficiencies
and prepare itself for a more powerful and better planned
attack. War-mongering nations have always utilised the
recess after a war to prepare for a much bigger future war.
In fact Pakistan is already fast replenishing its losses in
arms. It is continuing in its aggressive posture and violat-
ing the cease-fire with impunity. It has occupied hundreds
of square miles of our territory after the cease-fire. Killing
of our people, lifting our cattle, cutting of crops, sniping
and shelling are going on unabated. This is a situation
insulting to us in the extreme. It is intolerable. It should
not be allowed to hang on like this for long. There should
be some finality about it. The issue should be decided
once for all.

Welcome Bigger War

Let us not be unnecessarily alarmed about the evil
combination of China and Pakistan. We can most certainly
bring to knees both the aggressors. Our army is in excellent
fighting trim. Their morale is splendid. Indeed it would
have been highly desirable if China had followed up its

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311

ultimatum and invaded our country. That would have
given our fighting forces a golden opportunity to make
China lick the dust and to wash off the stigma of defeat and
dishonour attached to our name in our last encounter with
China. The world would then have witnessed the supreme
heights of our Bharatiya heroism, for what fun is there in
merely fighting a petty power like Pakistan ?

On the international front too, such a grim and all out
struggle with China would have had extremely beneficial
effects. Russia, in its own interest, would never take a
chance of allowing so big a country as Bharat to go under
the control of China. This consideration would have
goaded Russia to assist Bharat, directly or indirectly, to
resist China’s aggression. America, too, would have been
forced to reconsider its policy vis-a-vis Bharat and Pakistan.
For obvious reasons, it would not have risked, by itself
helping Pakistan which had gone over to China’s camp
completely, the possibility of China emerging supreme and
unchallenged on the Asian scene. It would have probably
come to the conclusion that after all, Bharat, the biggest
member in the comity of democracies, could be a greater
support in the long run to it than Pakistan which is only a
puffed-up military dictatorship. That would have also
afforded it an opportunity to set right the wrong foreign
policy it had pursued so far. The lesson of the present
war that a dummy country like Pakistan, however much
armed, cannot browbeat a big and virile nation as Bharat,
would have acted as a major factor in reshaping its policies.
The strong and freedom-loving Bharat would thus have become
the meeting ground for the two nuclear giants for a joint front
against China— the one common menace to entire humanity —
which would have been a most desirable development in the
interests of world peace.

Such a total war, unlike the present limited one, would
have involved every one of our countrymen in active
participation in an all out war-effort and that would have
been a great chastener of the national mind. The long

312

Bunch of Thoughts

spell of slavery and submissive living under the British has
bred many a vice of indolence, selfishness, parochialism etc.,
in us. All these vices and weaknesses would have been
completely burnt in the fire of a long-drawn war and the
pure gold of a united and heroic nationhood w'ould have
emerged evermore resplendent. It is therefore that a bigger
and total war is welcome in spite of the temporal hard-
ships it may entail us. In fact, we should heartily pray
for such a war, though we are traditionally incurable lovers of
peace and not war-mongers; for that is the price we
have to pay for peace with freedom and honour and
the sooner we pay the price the better.

xvra

Nation at War

J2. meeting the chathe*

'-r

Self-reliance , backbone of freedom; Atom Bomb—
Challenge of the belly— Break spell of money— Price
of foreign dependence— England’ s example — Building
nation’s morale— Government’s responsibility — Path of
assimilating doubtful elements— Present war , a great
chastener— Upsurges and lasting integration— Hindu
Nationalism, acme of all ‘isms’.

L OOKED at from any angle the present situation is both
a challenge and an opportunity to our people. The
major challenge that we are called upon to face is in achieving
self-sufficiency in all vital sectors of our national life.

Backbone of Freedom — Self-Reliance

The great fact of national life that self-reliance — swava-
lambana— forms the backbone of a free and prosperous nation
has never been so forcefully brought home to us as at
present. And the first and foremost sphere where we have
to achieve self-dependence is defence. For this we must
build up our own war-potential and free ourselves from
dependence on foreign aid. The Government should appeal
to all the industrialists, scientists and technicians and with
12 313

314

Bunch of Thoughts

their co-operation manufacture, at the earliest, weapons
superior to those available to the enemies. The possession
of atom bomb by Communist China has made it imperative
for us to manufacture the same. That alone will ensure
confidence in the minds of the people and the armed forces
about our ability to achieve ultimate victory. No doctrinaire
or academic inhibitions should be allowed to come in the
way.

Every Labourer and Scientist

Further, all of us— peasants, workers, industrialists and
those in all other walks of life— have to make a determined
effort to increase production of all essential commodities
and free the country from the present abject dependence on
other countries even for our daily bread. Every factory
and field must come up with record production. We simply
cannot brook scarcity or deficiency in vital goods.

And especially to the scientists war affords a great
challenge. Many of the most notable inventions have been
made by scientists under the serious stress and strain of
war. Necessity, it is said, is the mother of invention. Radar
was devised by Britain and the atom was split during the
Second World War. Our scientists are no less a match in
intelligence and originality to the greatest of any other
country. Let them now accept the challenge of the times
and bring forth such discoveries and inventions, the mere
intimation of which will unnerve the enemies and which,
at the same time, can be converted into instruments of
national prosperity in times of peace.

Challenge of the Belly

Then there is the food sector which calls for our para-
mount and urgent attention. As all know our country is
faced with the growing problem of food scarcity. Agitations
and demonstrations demanding adequate and prompt supply
of food-grains have become almost the order of the
day. Often, the agitations take a violent turn. It is true

Nation at War — II

315

that agitation has today become the accepted mode of

giving vent to people's grievances. If people sit -quiet and

suffer mutely. Government too sleeps and becomes callous
to the people’s suffering. Sense does not dawn upon our
Government in time to avert unseemly agitations. The
glaring instance of Kolhapur is before us. There were food
agitations in that town. Hungry mobs indulged in looting
and rioting. It is said that if food grains had reached
Kolhapur a week earlier the riots would not have taken
place. It was only after rioting and looting that food-grains
were rushed there.

But from the point of view of finding a lasting solution,
will mere agitations help? Production and distribution
are the two aspects of the food problem. To some

extent, the agitations may force the Government to
concentrate on the second aspect, i.e., distribution. But has
it made anyone sit up and think about the basic problem
of production and try to find out lasting solution for

that?

Break Suicidal Spell of Money

For example, we find that millions of acres of our
fertile land have gone under cash-crops. Take the case of
U. P. and Bihar. Substantial parts of that rich wheat and
rice producing tract have now gone under sugar-cane. The
result is that U. P. which used to export wheat, cannot now
subsist without importing it from Punjab or somewhere
else. In Maharashtra, there is a race for growing grapes,
mostly for preparing wine out of it. In Andhra, a separate
department for tobacco development is set up to encourage
tobacco growing. Groundnut is another such cash-crop.
We must cry a halt to this trend and reclaim those lands
for growing food-grains. If we are to import, we may
as well import, for instance, sugar in place of wheat. If
imports stop in the case of an emergency as the present
one, at the most sugar imports may be stopped. We do
not die for want of sugar, but we will certainly die for want

316

Bunch of Thoughts

of wheat and rice. Today, we know how our leaders are
running about for import of American wheat under PL 480.
They feel that without the loan — it is loan, not aid— we
will not be able to survive.

Now, why do people go in for cash-crops? That is
because we have given undue importance to money in our
day-to-day life. Money is only a medium of exchange and
an instrument. Unfortunately, that instrument has been
allowed to become our master. If this money-oriented
outlook dominates our life, how can we ever expect the
villagers to produce food-grains sufficient to feed them-
selves and also the city-dwellers? And without food-grains
how can we survive? Surely we cannot eat money and
exist !

The idea that self-sufficiency in food is a ‘must’ for our
national defence should be instilled in the minds of our
farmers all over the land. They should be made to feel it
a sacred call of national duty to grow food-grains sufficient
to feed our population. And then only if they choose,
they can grow other cash-crops. The Government and the
people must devise all such measures whereby our country
will become self-dependent in this foremost need.

Price of Foreign Dependence

As days'go by, the urgent need for self-reliance is becoming
more and more painfully clear to us. The decision of
the Government to continue to release liberal supplies of
canal-water to Pakistan, when for want of water crops on
our side are withering, and also to continue payment of
crores of rupees at a time when every pie is to be conserved
for our defence, is a striking instance i n point. It is obvious
that we have succumbed to the pressure of World Bank
on whose obligation we depend for monetary aid. The
saying, ‘Beggars are not choosers’ — and so are debtors! —
has come true to a letter in our case. This is the price we
are paying for not having taken care to make our economy
self-reliant all these years. The habit of begging for food.

Nation at War— II

317

for money and for everything over the last eighteen years
has verily sapped our spirit of self-effort and manliness and
reduced us to abject servility. Here was the chance for
our leaders to resist all outside pressures and refuse to pay
a single pie or a single drop of water to Pakistan which
would only go to feed its aggressive appetite. The so-called
commitment under the Canal Waters Treaty had stood
automatically cancelled immediately Pakistan invaded our
country. In fact, our leaders ought to have demanded full
compensation from Pakistan for all our losses caused by its
wanton aggression and payment of all the dues it owes us
under various agreements over the last eighteen years since
Partition. Though such a firm stand might have entailed
immediate hardships to us, it would have steeled the nation
with a new resolve to make our economy self-sustaining
hereafter.

Let us realise that there are no short-cuts for preserving
national freedom and honour. Every nation has to plod
the hard path of self-reliance and self-sacrifice to reach
that goal.

A Shining Example

Our people need to be trained in this practical aspect
of patriotism. It is not enough if we merely wish well of
the country. We have to understand how best to express
our aspirations of national welfare in practice and act
accordingly.

There is the glowing example of England, of how they
gave practical shape to their inborn spirit of patriotism
when the situation demanded. When the First World
War broke out, it became difficult for England to import
food-stuffs from countries like Bharat. Ships carrying
food-stuffs were being torpedoed by Germany. England was
then faced with the challenge of the belly which threatened
to undo all their plans of war. They chalked out a master
plan for bringing under plough every bit of cultivable
land. They assessed the nature and quantity of crops that

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Bunch of Thoughts

could be produced, and applied themselves vigorously and
systematically on the food front for one year with the result
that they achieved self-sufficiency in food at least to the
extent of meeting their barest needs and thus successfully
met one of the major challenges of the war. England,
with a low percentage of cultivable land, achieved this
miracle. In contrast, how vast and fertile is our country !
Our country is in fact known for its fertility of soil. And
still, we are unable to achieve self-dependence in this vital
sector. To meet this challenge, it requires rousing and
applying our national will in constructive channels.

Building Nation’s Morale

And that brings us to the all-important question of
maintaining the nation’s morale at the highest pitch. For,
the immediate and long-range plans for achieving self-
sufficiency and self-reliance in defence, in food, in indus-
trial production etc., entirely depend for their success on
the preparedness of each one of our countrymen to offer
his ‘blood, sweat and tears’ over a long number of years.
The intense rousing of national consciousness can alone
open up the perennial springs of such a spontaneous and
joyful spirit of self-sacrifice among the people. Therefore
it is of utmost moment that every sphere of our national
endeavour exercises vigilance so as to keep up the splendid
national morale in evidence today.

Every Trader

The business community has a vital role to play in
this regard. During war, commodities go scarce, demands
grow and there is a tendency to make bigger profits.
Especially in areas directly hit by the enemy, in the face
of destruction of life and property, anti-social and un-
scrupulous traders will get a chance to hold the people to
ransom. In 1962, under the shadow of Chinese aggression,
when people began to flee Tejpur and cross Brahmaputra,
even the riksha-pullers and the boatmen charged as much as

Nation at War— II

319

Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 for carrying a single person! Similar things
have happened in Jamnagar recently. Instead of rushing to
the rescue of our brethren in mortal peril, to exploit their
difficulty and squeeze them further is nothing short of trading
in human misery, nothing short of cannibalism. Raising of
prices of essential commodities is no less reprehensible.

The business community should beware of this tendency
and see that such a vital sector does not become a menace
to people’s morale in these crucial times.

Every Village

Let every village and town maintain its all-round
morale and not exhibit the slightest sign of laxity. No
incident should take place anywhere that will tell upon the
morale of our men on the war-front. Strict watch and control
over elements bent upon disturbing internal peace and order
and sabotaging the war efforts should be exercised. There
is no reason to allow ourselves to fall into complacent
relaxation. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. All
activities regarding civil defence as well as alertness and
watchfulness about anti-social and anti-national elements
must continue in full swing so as not to give any chance to
fifth-columnists aided by infiltrators to jeopardise the country’s
security from within.

The Government

In this regard, the Government has a special respon-
sibility. Not only should they be extremely alert and
determined to deal with all such subversive elements with
an iron hand, but they should also publicise the stem
measures they have taken whenever such incidents take
place.

The shooting down by Pakistan of the civilian plane
carrying Sri Balawantrai Mehta, the Chief Minister of
Gujarat, and killing him is an instance in point. Grave
doubts have arisen in the people’s mind whether Pakistani
agents inside our borders had given the clue to the enemy

320

Bunch of Thoughts

in advance over the transmitter. The people also know
for certain that such transmitters are working all over the
country. Even to this day, the Government has not allayed
the anxiety of the people whether the enemy agents
involved in such incidents have been caught and punished.
In the absence of any authoritative information, people are
bound to entertain serious doubts regarding the efficacy
of our security arrangements to deal with internal enemies.
That would seriously shake people’s confidence in the
Government which would be a grave tragedy in the present
times. If the Government has tracked down the culprits
it should inform the people so that they will feel assured
of the competency of our internal security arrangements and
their fervour to co-operate with the Government will be
reinforced.

Not Money but Nation First

In whatever the Government does, it should unfailingly
keep in mind the supreme consideration of making the people
nation-oriented in every one of their activities. Our Govern-
ment’s offer of a cash award of five hundred rupees to
anyone who apprehends a Pakistani paratrooper betrays a
singular lack of imagination to appreciate the impulses that
move nations in such critical times. Instead of the money-
oriented appeal, they ought to have appealed to the
patriotic instinct of the people and called upon them to
track down the deceitful foe who was out to sabotage our
nation from within. If money is the only appeal, then,
Pakistan’s award of one thousand rupees for an ally of
the saboteur may well nullify our Government’s appeal and
make a traitor out of him. In fact, the enemy paratroopers
carried huge sums of money to purchase our people as
partners in their nefarious designs. Money-oriented appeal
by making our people conscious of money in place of
nation, may therefore, have quite the opposite effect to the
one our Government intends.

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321

Path of Assimilation

As the present occasion has shown, it was the intense
rousing of national consciousness and prowess that has
held in check, and to some extent even neutralised, the
powerful Pakistani elements spread all over the land. In
the past they have given the country a lot of trouble.
Till now, the riots that have been breaking out now and
then, the violence indulged in, and even in the recent
crisis, the suspicious conduct of some of them, do make us
say that they have so far refused to be assimilated in the main
current of national life.

In this regard it would be useful for the Muslims here
to emulate the example of their co-religionists in countries
like Iran, Turkey etc. When Islam spread from Arabia
to those neighbouring countries, the local people there
adopted the Islamic creed but retained their culture and
language and way of life. In Indonesia, a predominantly
Muslim country, the children begin their learning with
lessons about Rama and Sita. It is only here that the
local Muslims disowned their ancestors, their language,
customs and all such elements of national heritage. And it is
this oblivion of their ancestry that has led to the partition of
the country.

The change that is visible in them today may well be
the product of the situation— in which Bharat has dis-
played its valour and fortitude; and proved to the world
how soundly it can thrash the mischief-mongers. However,
let us hope the change is due to sincere change of heart on
their part and that in course of time, they will realise that
they too were once Hindus, that it is their duty to be
loyal to this land, to serve it honestly, to share the joys
and sufferings of their compatriots and to respect the
traditions of this land. On our part, we should remain
vigilant and strong-willed so that all such wavering elements
will find it in their own interest to merge in the main-stream of
nationalism.

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The Great Chastener

The supreme need of exercising alertness in keeping
aglow the national consciousness and morale can best be
illustrated by the problem of forging enduring national
solidarity. Today no doubt we see our national mind cast
into a splendid mood of united effort and self-sacrifice.
Till yesterday selfishness, party bickerings, scramble for
power and internal strife were rending our national life to
shreds. The spirit of separatism was rearing its ugly head
under a hundred and one pretexts. Now all that is getting
consumed by the sacred flames of the sacrificial pyre of
our valiant jawans. The inspiring sight of our jawans
drawn from all corners of the country, right from Kerala
and Madras to Punjab and Bengal, standing shoulder to
shoulder on the battle-field, sharing their joys and sorrows
together, fighting and dying together for the defence of our
country, has projected the image of a single indivisible
motherland — the great Bharat Mata. The immortal springs
of our innate national unity have now been once again
opened up and the whole country with all its variety, so
bewildering to those who cannot grasp our peculiar web of
life, has stood united as one colossal corporate personality
— Virdt Purusha .

Upsurges and Lasting Integration

But can we be sure that all this will endure and that
all the fissiparous tendencies and vices that were eating into
the vitals of our body-politic have now become permanently
a thing of the past?

Our experience after the Chinese invasion in October
1962 has a lesson for us in this regard. In the wake of that
aggression, our people rose as one man and displayed un-
paralleled unity of purpose and action. But, after the
Chinese declared unilateral cease-fire and withdrew, how
long did that national spirit last? A single instance will
suffice to show how shortlived it was. Recently (January
1965), a movement was launched in Madras inspired by

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323

hatred against one of our own languages, Hindi, and infatuation
for a foreign tongue, English. Crores worth national
property was destroyed. A prominent leader of the

English-loving section even declared that hereafter it was
impossible for the people in the North and the South to
live together and that vivisection of the country into North
and South was the only way out. Where then had all the
speeches and pledges of national oneness administered to the
people hardly a couple of years ago in the wake of
Chinese invasion disappeared?

Even in the present emergency, we are already hearing
voices indicating a relapse into old habits. The Punjabi
Suba controversy which had erupted by the ‘ultimatum’
of fasting and self-immolation by Sant Fateh Singh had
subsided for the time being by his withdrawing the same in
the wake of Pakistani aggression. But immediately the
cease-fire was announced, the old quarrel has been revived
once again and Punjab, still wet with the blood of martyrs
in the cause of motherland, is already plunging headlong
into internecine strife.

In fact, this tendency to relapse into old ruts has been
one of our serious undoings even in past history. Our
society is like Kumbhakarna, who used to wake up for a
while, have a nice grub and then doze off into deep slumber
once again. Our sense of relaxation and complacency after
a victory, and often relapsing into the old feuds and dissensions,
would give the enemy the chance to strike again in
a bigger way and defeat us. One of the chief causes of our
defeat in the 1857 War of Independence was that the
initial successes that our freedom fighters registered made
them complacent. Except the few top leaders like Nana
Saheb, Tatya Tope etc., the local leaders and the rank and
file of the revolution relaxed and did not press their positions
of advantage to complete victory. The result was, the
English got breathing time to get over the first shock of
the uprising and to mobilise their forces for giving a crushing
blow to the freedom forces.

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Bunch of Thoughts

National consciousness and national solidarity have
therefore to be rooted in something deeper and more positive
than in the mere upsurge of feelings at the moment of

enemy aggression. Where then shall we search for the

taproots of such an enduring national solidarity and

devotion ?

All 6 Isms ’ at Their Noblest !

During the present crisis, various appeals have been
made by our leaders in order to invoke the spirit of sacrifice
and suffering and united effort to throw out the aggressor.
Appeal has been made in the name of democracy, secularism
and socialism. The spirit of democracy at its best, which
confers the right of freedom of speech, thought and

action on the individual is nowhere more fully recognised
and practised than in the age-old Hindu tradition. If by
secularism is meant that the State should not be tagged
to any particular creed and that all faiths should be
equally respected, then this again would be another name
for Hindu tradition. In fact, Hindu tradition goes far
beyond the Western concept of mere tolerance; it respects
all faiths as equally sacred. If by socialism is meant removal
of economic inequality, then here again it is the Hindu
thought and practice that stand as the unfailing guarantee
for social and economic justice. Manu has declared
that a man’s right to property is limited to the amount
of food he needs for the day. He who seeks to hoard
more is a thief and must be punished.

All told, these various concepts can all be conveyed
to our people — and in a much better manner — in terms of
Hindu tradition and nationalism which is already in their
blood since ages. And therein lies the real source of inspiration
which can rouse all the traditional virtues of self-sacrifice
and heroism in our people and make them offer gladly
and spontaneously whatever is expected of them in the
present national trial.

The sooner we realise this fundamental fact of national

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325

life, the better it is for us. The real and abiding source of
inspiration can only be found in the spirit of unalloyed
nationalism. The feeling of burning love for Bharat Mata,
the great and sacred mother of us all, the intense consciousness
of our being a single and indivisible brotherhood as the
children of that common mother, and pride in our glorious
national past, in our unique cultural heritage and aspiration
to see our Bharat Mata reseated in her pristine glory and
honour in the comity of nations, can alone act as a constant
and powerful incentive capable of taking up in its sweep the
greatest as well as the humblest of the land and bring out
the best in them in the cause of the country. That alone
shall bring into full play the invincible potency of our people
so amply demonstrated in the present crisis and make them
realise the inspiring vision of an invincible united Bharat
Mata holding in one hand the Kamala, the power to bless
the good, and in the other the Vajra , the power to strike down
evil, the very embodiment of Brahma-teja and Kshatra-teja.

Part Pour

IVIouldiiig IVXen

XIX

The Technique that Succeeds

/. ■Jj&z tine national teotffanLiatioie.

Failings of revolutionary and mass movements— Day-
to-day technique for moulding men— Stress on practice —
National symbol Bhagawa Dhwaj, the Guru — Worship
of ideal , not individual or book— Shakha, crucible of
national reorganisation— Tradition of national festi-
vals — Dangers of ‘ institutionalism ’ — Domination by
militant groups, an un-Hindu concept — Sangh for
organising whole society.

A N ideal requires a method, a process for its realisation
in actuality. Today all around us we witness various,
types of techniques being adopted by several organisations.
Even at the time of the founding of our organisation these
different methods of work were in vogue. And it was not
that Dr. Hedgewar, the founder of the Sangh, was unaware
of those systems when he evolved this particular technique
for our organisation. On the contrary, for quite a long
time before he started the Sangh, he was in the thick of the
activities of those organisations and was well acquainted
with their techniques.

Why then did he start a separate organisation with a
separate technique? Is it because he wanted credit and

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Bunch of Thoughts

-applause for himself as the founder and leader of an
independent organisation? Nothing could be farther from
truth. Doctorji had received enough applause on other
platforms. With his spirit of boundless sacrifice, tremendous
‘energy of action and flash of genius it was mere child’s play
for him, had he so desired, to get the highest political prizes
of the land. But he gave up all that and started this silent
.and unassuming type of organisation.

In Search of the Right Path

What then is the reason that prompted him to plough
this fresh furrow in the national field? Being of a fiery
patriotic temperament right from his boyhood, his first
fascination was naturally for the revolutionary movements
of the day. He had, as a matter of fact, chosen the
medical course at Calcutta in spite of untold personal
hardships only with a view to diving deep into that
movement, as Calcutta was then the seething volcano of
revolutionary activities. He lived in the dangerous under-
currents of that volcanic lava, but kept his discerning eye
-ever wide open. Though his heart throbbed in unison with
the flaming hearts of those revolutionary comrades, he found
their method wanting as an effective instrument for total
national regeneration. Their secret and lightning movements,
their daring exploits and glorious martyrdoms evoked
the highest admiration in his fiery bosom but his calm
brain refused to be blinded by the flash of such revolutionary
'sparks.

He knew that a handful of secret workers, deprived of
direct contact with the people, could play but a very limited
role in rousing and organising a whole nation.
Further, he had observed that most of the revolutionary
plots and secrets had met with disaster by the cropping
up of informers and traitors every now and then from even
.amongst their top cadres, thus undoing at one stroke the
glorious heroism anA sacrifices of countless revolutionaries.
Without a trained core of extremely strong-willed.

The Technique that Succeeds — I

331

disciplined and patriotic men, no revolution could be expected
to succeed in blowing up an organised and mighty state
machinery such as the British had built in our country.

After he returned to Nagpur from Calcutta, he plunged
into the freedom movement of the Congress. Under the
leadership of Lokamanya Tilak. the Congress was fast
becoming a movement of the masses. The age of arm-chair
politicians was gone. A new era of mass resistance to
the British had set in. The spirit of sward] was in the
atmosphere. After Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi spread the tire
far and wide and lit up the torch of resistance in every
town and village. Gandhiji with his unimpeachable char-
acter, his spirit of utter selflessness and fearlessness, his
simple yet effective techniques touching the heart of the
common mass of people roused the nation to new heights of
struggle and sacrifice. Pandit Nehru with his burning
idealism and dynamism was coming up as the inspiring
symbol and spearhead of the proud and independent spirit,
of the rising generation. By the efforts of such stalwarts
the country was caught in a wave of intense anti-British
upsurge. Doctorji too was in the forefront bearing the-
brunt. He defied the foreign rulers and courted hard terms
in prison. At the same time, he continued his close scrutiny
of the movement and found to his disappointment some
grave defects which he feared would be the undoing of all
its cherished aspirations in the long run.

In both the movements he had observed that the-
main incentive was the anti-British spirit with no positive
vision of national freedom. That was the case with not
only the general mass of the people but with most of
the leaders as well. And without a positive conviction of
our national life, in course of time, those movements were
bound to drift into reactionary channels.

Secondly, they could give no answer to a question which
had haunted Doctorji since his very boyhood. How
could a handful of foreigners, Muslim or British, subjugate-
us and rule over us for such a length of time? Ousting

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Bunch of Thoughts

the British was all right, but what was the root malady
which had resulted in that foreign domination? If, as
it was clear, our own disunity was responsible for our
slavery, then would these terrorist and agitational methods
remedy that root malady? Could abiding oneness of the
people be created by revolutionary shocks and mass
upsurges? Could all the evil tendencies such as selfishness,
lack of discipline and absence of national consciousness,
which had been eating into the vitals of our people for the
last so many centuries and had resulted in foreign domina-
tion, be wiped off at one stroke?

And again, without the people being rooted in the
positive and sustaining virtues of an organised national life,
would it be advisable to work up mass fury on the basis of
mere antagonism? In Shakespeare’s c Julius Caesar’, after
Caesar is assassinated by his own comrades, and Brutus and
-Cassius ride on the crest of popular upsurge, Caeser’s friend
Antony cleverly manipulates the mob fury and turns its tide
against the assassinators themselves. As the wild mob
turns in their hot pursuit, Antony comes out with the
famous remark, “ Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what
course thou wilt.” That is the disastrous drawback— ‘thou
wilt’ and not as ‘ we will’ — of all such mass upsurges without
.a corresponding countrywide organisation based on positive
national life-values and capable of directing and controlling
the movement.

For a Mental Revolution

After deep cogitation along these lines, Doctorji
■concluded that a total revolution in the mental attitude of
the people was the vital need of the hour. It was a mental
revolution and not a physical revolution that was the
panacea for all our nation’s ills, including the foreign
domination. He was aware that the task of bringing
about a total transformation in the attitudes and thought-
processes and behaviour of the whole people, by taking
individual after individual and moulding him for an

The Technique that Succeeds -I

333

organised national life, demanded a perseverent, silent and
single-minded approach free from all public fanfare and
propaganda.

National reorganisation means fostering those traits
which build up national character and cohesion. It is
directed towards awakening a passionate devotion to the
motherland, a feeling of fraternity, a sense of sharing in
national work, a deeply felt reverence for the nation’s-
ideals, discipline, heroism, manliness and other noble
virtues. This work of moulding minds and building
character cannot be done by sermons or administering
pledges. The spirit of devotion to the nation has to be a
steady flame, burning day in day out and year after year.
And so people should gather daily and regularly in an
environment congenial to its growth. Having this in view
our founder finally evolved the present framework of
organisation.

The Scene that Inspires

The first thing that strikes the eye in our method is-
its day-to-day programme. There is an open playground.
Under a saffron flag groups of youths and boys are absorbed
in a variety of Bharatiya games. Resounding shouts
of joyous enthusiasm often fill the air. The sight of the
daring young men pressing forward with the cry ‘Kabaddi,,
Kabaddi ’ on their lips thrills the heart. The leader’s-
whistle or order has a magical effect on them ; there is
instant perfect order and silence. Then exercises follow-
wielding the lathi, Suryanamaskar, marching etc. The
spirit of collective effort and spontaneous discipline pervades
every programme. Then they sit down and sing in chorus
songs charged with patriotism. Discussions follow. They
delve deep into the problems affecting the national life.
And finally, they stand in rows before the flag and recite
the prayer:

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Bunch of Thoughts

?TTcpT3T I

(Many salutations to Thee, 0 loving motherland!) whose
echoes fill the air and stir the soul. ‘Bharat Mata
ki jai’ uttered in utmost earnest furnishes the finishing
and inspiring touch to the entire programme.

Throughout the length and breadth of Hindusthan,
not only in towns and cities but in far off hamlets, hills
and dales, these inspiring scenes and soul-stirring songs
greet us regularly and punctually at the time of sunrise,
sunset or at night everyday. We call it ‘shakha’.

The real spirit of our work will be understood when
one comes in contact with the shakha. Once a dignitary
came to preside over one of our functions at Nagpur. He
frankly confessed, “I was highly sceptical about the work
of the Sangh all these years. I used to confront its workers
with a thousand and one questions. But today having
seen the Sangh myself, all my doubts and suspicions have
vanished.” Practically every place that has a shakha has
a similar story to tell.

The reason for this is simple. The shakha is the living
practice of principles and not a bundle of dry preachings.
The picture of earnest and devoted men, young and old,
engaged in the daily sadhand gives an eloquent, though
silent, message of the work which no spoken or written
word can ever adequately convey.

Planners Galore!

The inevitable need of the silent and intensely practical
aspect of the Sangh and its concentration on the moulding
of hearts as living limbs of our national being will become
apparent when we contrast it with the atmosphere prevailing
outside.

Once I met an elderly gentleman. He began telling
me that he knew all about our organisation and it was,
in fact, he who gave that plan to Dr. Hedgewar! He also
showed me the notes detailing his ideas about the ideal

The Technique That Succeeds— I

335

method of organisation. Then I just asked him, “ You have
spent all your active life in this place. Can you just tell me
how many friends you have here who will stand by you
under any circumstance?” He replied with evident disdain,
“Tnere is not even a single fellow here worthy of my friendship.
All are sinful wretches.” Then I told him jokingly, “At least,
should you not have four persons to carry your body on the
final day?”

Our country is today infested in every sphere of life wixh
sucn 4 expert planners % 4 preachers ’ and 4 advisers ’ and
their 4 learned ’ discourses and exhortations. It is well known
that people devoid of a strict and unflagging adherence to a
practical technique to achieve the cherished goal degenerate-
into tall talks and low habits.

The Image for Worship

Together with its all out emphasis on the practical
aspect of the work, the Sangh has bestowed profound-
thought on evolving a proper framework of technique that
will be effective in the achievement of its ideal. Without
a suitable technique no ideal, however great, can be*
realised. Even in our various sects, each individual has-
a definite emblem in keeping with his particular sect. He
dresses and adorns himself in a particular manner, recites
a particular mantra and follows a particular code of discipline^
A Shaiva, a Shakta or a Yaishnava, each has his own method
of worship, his own ritual, his own codes and conventions-
regulating his life.

We too have evolved a technique, an emblem, &.
4 mantra ’ and a code of discipline in keeping with our
ideal of an unified and disciplined national life. The great
and inspiring emblem that we have chosen is the immortal
Bhagawa Dhwaj which brings before our eyes the living,
image of our ancient, sacred and integrated national life in
all its pristine purity and entirety crossing all superficial
barriers of province, sect, creed, caste, language and
custom. Since times immemorial, it has been the symbol

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Bunch of Thoughts

of our dharma, our culture, our traditions and ideals. It
•embodies the colour of the holy sacrificial fire that gives
the message of self-immolation in the fire of idealism and
the glorious orange hue of the rising sun that dispels dark-
ness and sheds light all-round. It has been the one guiding
•star to all our endeavours, material as well as spiritual,
the one unfailing witness to every page of our history. It
has witnessed the rise and fall of empires, the penance of
yogis and the sacrifices of heroes and symbolised the dreams
of countless millions of this land all through the ages. In
short, it has been the highest, the noblest and the truest symbol
of our nationhood.

Worship Ideal, Not Individual or Book

The Sangh has taken up this living symbol as its
guiding light — the guru. When Doctorji placed this flag
before us as our guru , as our ideal, quite a few of his
-co-workers raised their eyebrows. Having seen the ideal
in flesh and blood in the form of Doctorji himself, they
■queried, “Why not look to Doctorji himself as our ideal?”
But our founder, in keeping with the spirit of the organisa-
tion, placed the immortal Bhagawa as our ideal. No
individual, however great, can be the ideal for a nation.
The individual is after all a fleeting entity in the eternity
of national life. However great, he can at best reflect a
fraction of the beauty and fragrance of the full bloom of
the national life over the centuries. Moreover, it is futile
to expect that all people will cherish the same devotion
towards a particular person, however noble and venerable
he may be. Some worship Sri Rama as their Chosen Deity
whereas some others look upon Sri Krishna as their God and
so on. Therefore the Sangh has kept a symbol which is at once
universal and all-absorbing in its appeal.

The tragedy of those movements that revolved solely
around individuals for their inspiration and ideals is there
for all to see in the history of nations the world over. The
curse of personality cult and the rise of dictators that have

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337

scarred the face of humanity have been due to the idolising
of individuals to the neglect of ideals. Our culture has
always commanded us to look upon the individual as
great and worthy of our adoration only to the extent he
expresses an ideal in his life. In the whole wide world
it is our dharma alone that is not based on the historicity
or authority of any single individual.

The other special feature of our cultural heritage is
that no book is taken as the single supreme authority for
our dharma and samsJcriti. All our scriptural texts are
only expositions of the several aspects and paths to the
One Goal of human life. The Sangh too has not accepted
or prepared any book to serve as its sole authority. Once
a prominent religious leader asked me, “Which is the text
you follow?” I replied, “If we confine ourselves to the
word of a book, then we will be no better than Muslims
and Christians whose religion stands on a book. And
so our devotion is to the ideal and to nothing less as
nothing else.”

It is in keeping with that sublime cultural tradition
that the Sangh has kept before itself neither an individual
nor a book as its authority but Bhagawa Dhwaj, the
glowing symbol of all that is good and great in our national
life, and through that, is striving for the inculcation of
pure devotion to the nation as a whole.

Crucible of National Reorganisation

It is in its sanctifying presence that the day-to-day
activities of the shakha are carried on. All sections of our
people gather there. Forgetting all superficial distinctions
of language, province, caste, community, party or sect,
they gather as children of a common motherland and play
in her sacred dust. They pray to the motherland in deep
veneration. They resolve to lay down their lives for her
glory. As they play and sing, a feeling of oneness brings
them together. As they perform exercises together and
march together their hearts begin to throb in unison.

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Bunch of Thoughts

More important than the programme is the atmosphere.
An air of sweetness and sanctity pervades the atmoshere.
In course of time, amidst the wide variety and diversity
of the assembling persons, a wholesome unity emerges.
The spirit of amity and harmony strikes root in their minds.
And the inspiring dream of national unity submerging social,
political, economic and other divisions becomes a living
reality. Thus the shakha is the crucible which awakens
noble impulses of dedicated patriotic service in our people
and binds them together with immortal fraternal bonds.
It is the creative centre for sterling national character and
lasting national cohesion.

Medium of Mass-Awakening

Besides, the tradition of national festivals that the Sangh
has evolved is a potent medium of awakening the masses
to our true and integrated national life.

Varsha Pratipadd or Yugddi , the Hindu New Year’s
Day, brings us memories of our great epoch-makers and
their immortal achievements. By a happy coincidence it
is also the birthday of our founder. Hindu Sdmrdjya
Dinoisav (Jyeshtha Shuddha Trayodashi) marks the victory
of the resurgent Hindu power over the eight-hundred-year-
old oppressive rule of Muslims, under the virile leadership
of Shivaji who founded the sovereign national throne on
this sacred day in 1674. Guru Poojd (Ashadha Poornima)
is the traditional day when the pupil renders homage to his
teacher. The Sangh has given it a national character. It is
on this day that Sangh worships its guru, Bhagawa Dhwaj,
the symbol of our dharma and our nationhood. Rakshd
Bandhan (Shravana Poornima) reminds us that we are all
children of a common motherland. We tie Rdkhi, a
symbol of fraternity, on this day. Vijayddashami (Ashwa-
yuja Shuddha Dashami) awakens memories of the glorious
tradition of our victories over the forces of evil. It is also
the birthday of the Sangh. Makar SanJcraman , which
marks the transition in nature from ‘darkness to light %

The Technique that Succeeds — I

339

holds us the message to move from the darkness of selfishness
to the light of national consciousness.

Thus on the one hand, the virtues of national conscious-
ness, character and cohesion are infused inxo the people by
the day-to-day training in the shakha and, on the other
hand, the flame of national awakening is fed by the various
national festivals.

Curse of 4 Institutionalism 5

It is clear from the above description that it is the all-
absorbing spirit of devotion to nation in its entirety and
not to any individual or institution that is sought to be
ingrained in the Sangh. Without that life-spirit, mere
attachment to and pride in the external set-up will become
one more point of national disruption.

In our past history and even in recent times, we have
burnt our fingers having ignored this basic principle of
national reorganisation. There had been many attempts in
the past in various parts of the country at awakening and
organising our people. The great sponsors of those
movements had started them with a view to strengthening
and unifying society as a whole. But as circumstances
changed and the immediate cause for their coming into
being was removed, the inner spirit gave place to mere
attachment to the external form. As a result, we see many
such rigidified sects developing into mutually exclusive
and even hostile entities in the present-day atmosphere of
selfishness.

For example, during the gruelling times of Muslim
onslaught, there arose in Punjab a great saint by name
Guru Nanak Dev who rekindled amongst the people the
dying embers of faith in our ancient dharma. He was
followed by a galaxy of nine gurus who lived and died as
flaming examples of devotion and sacrifice in the cause of
dharma. The tenth guru , Sri Guru Govind Singh, felt
that mere revival of dharmic devotion, without heroic
action, would be of little avail against the brutal forces of

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Bunch of Thoughts

adharma. He charged his followers with an indomitable
martial spirit and forged them into a conquering army of
heroic warriors. But what a misfortune that today the
mission which inspired that glorious movement is given a
go-by and mere attachment to the external form, the
institution, has so much hardened as to give rise to perverted
notions of separatism laying the axe at the very life-spirit
with which it came into being !

Let us take another instance from recent times. In
1947, when the British transferred power to the hands of
Congress, the Congress leaders, in defiance of Mahatmaji’s
advice to disband it, stuck to its name and form to
perpetuate themselves in power on the strength of its past
credit and goodwill. The result is that today Congressmen,
in a bid to stick to their seats of power, feel not the slightest
qualms of conscience in descending to any depths of
degradation. In order to win over the masses to their fold
they rouse their selfishness, tempt them with many a low
and immoral gratification, or threaten their opponents and
even do them to death.

There is an instance of our own experience. When
ban was imposed on the Sangh and I was put behind the
bars, I found in my room one morning a number of printed
papers meant to serve as apology forms for the swayam-
sevaks who had courted imprisonment. The Jail Superin-
tendent who came a little later told me that those forms
were supplied to the swayamsevaks who desired to apologise
and go out. I told him, “Of course, none of our persons
will ever dream of apologising as they have come here
of their own free will and for a cause which they hold
dearer than their life. But apart from it, what do you
stand to gain by such low tactics? When a person is made
to break his pledge to a cause, will it not demoralise and
immobilise him for the rest of his life? Would such a wreck
be beneficial to our national life? One could have under-
stood this method of getting apologies being adopted by
the British, for, to them, crushing the spirit of our country’s

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341

youth was essential to perpetuate their rule. But now our
leaders say this is sivardj. What then do they achieve by
thus trying to shatter the will and morale of our own
people?”

Un-Hindu Concept Eschewed

It is therefore that the Sangh has never entertained
the idea of building an organisation as a distinct and
separate unit within society. Right from its inception
the Sangh has clearly marked out as its goal the moulding
of the whole of society, and not merely any one part of it,
into an organised entity. That is the reason for the Sangh
workers not parading themselves as a c Sangh group’
before the people even when thousands of them work staking
their all in times of national catastrophies like famines,
floods, flow of refugees from Pakistan, etc. They are
content to remain as ordinary members of society and
thereby put up an example of how even a common man
should behave in an alert and organised social life. Such
a well-knit, patriotic and self-sustaining national life alone
can fortify our nation with overwhelming and everlasting
strength.

The idea of building a powerful group within society —
sometimes taking the form of a private army — is also
fraught with grave perils to a free and prosperous national
growth. We have witnessed such bodies shooting up like
meteors on the political horizon in Germany, in Italy, in
Russia and China and establishing totalitarian regimes in
their respective countries. It is in the nature of these
totalitarian parties to seek to perpetuate their domination
on society and to enslave people politically, economically,
socially, culturally and in all other respects. The hair-raising
reports of mass purges, brain-washing and slave camps
that are going on in Russia and China even . to this
day give us a picture of the state of affairs in such
countries. The nation’s free expression is thereby choked.
The individual is annihilated. And bereft of individual

342

Bunch of Thoughts

initiative and freedom, tbe society begins to degenerate.

But this idea of domination through brute strength is
absolutely alien to our culture and tradition. Our whole-
being revolts against this un-Hindu concept. Numerous
faiths and creeds have flourished here from ancient times.
We have had a variegated pattern of political institutions.
We have had republican governments and hereditary
kingships. Under all conditions the people were free tO'
follow their healthy persuasions in every walk of life-
Everyone was encouraged to develop himself according to
his individual genius, nature and inclination. In keeping
with that spirit, the work of the Hindu missionaries for
rousing and organising the society had always been
through love and service, character and sacrifice and
never through brute force or political power.

It is this type of elastic and self-expressive pattern of
organisation that has helped our society to keep alive its
spirit of coherence in spite of being subjected to unparalleled
atrocities and aggressions. If the pattern had been rigid
and imposed from above, our society would have today
remained merely as a fossil, just as some of the huge
animals which became immobile and gradually perished
under the deadweight of their rigid protective covers.
The Sangh has therefore rightly eschewed all those
self-defeating alien types of organisation and stuck to our
pure and healthy national tradition for rebuilding society.

XIX

The Technique that Succeeds

2 . tlte

tL# i

lit

appzoaci

L

Political parties and national consolidation— England
and Bharat— Need for radical cure— How to transform
minds— Momentary upsurges recoil— Rules for samskars
— From little things to great things —Indiscipline , enemy
of strength— True discipline — Present misconceptions—
Swayamsevak, a missionary — Self-reliance , self-
effacement — Practising , then preaching— Disciplined
and dedicated — Nucleus for national resurrection.

T HE concept of total national reorganisation that the
Sangh has been striving to bring into reality naturally
implies the non-political nature of its work- After all, a
political party can but represent a very small fraction of
the people. Nor can national oneness be achieved through
elections and political propaganda. Political techniques —
and even political power for that matter — can hardly infuse
the spirit of devotion, heroism, character, amity and
sacrifice in the people. In fact, without having those grass-
roots of a well-knit national life, the political parties
degenerate into mutual hostility and ruin the national
fabric.

343

344

Bunch of Thoughts

Chasing Forms, Losing Spirit

That is the unfortunate predicament in which we find
ourselves today. Devoid of the living faith in a single
national entity and of the supreme consciousness of
national interest we find that most of the political parties
have become merely breeding centres for disruptive forces
and fissiparous tendencies. We often find them joining
hands with avowedly anti-national elements within the
country and sometimes even with outside enemy powers in
a bid to further their narrow party interests.

One may ask whether it is not desirable to have
two parties working in a spirit of healthy competition
so that each may act as a corrective to the other and thus
keep the national health free from the poison of dictatorship
of a single party or a single person. The democratic
institution has undoubtedly that saving feature. But
even that will come into play only when the people are
firmly rooted in the consciousness of ‘nation above party’.
Even in those Western countries where the people are
steeped in that particular tradition for the past several
centuries, parties are not entirely free from mutual rivalry
and envy. However, they are able to keep the political
pulls within limits and subservient to the higher call of
national welfare. For them such institutions do good and
add vigour to their life. If a healthy and strong man puts
on a shirt made of very fine mulmul it will appear very nice
for him. But if a person whose limbs are lean and thin,
his chest gone in and who cannot even stand erect, wears
that and tries to strut about, he only makes himself a
laughing stock in the eyes of others.

For example, compare the conditions of our country
with those of England. Some years back, when Pandit
Nehru halted at London on his way to America, some
of our own countrymen in London went to the aerodrome to
stage a black flag demonstration against him simply because
they professed to belong to a different party. They
forgot that such an act against our Prime Minister in

The Technique that Succeeds — II

345

a foreign land was an insult to our nation.

Now, see the instance of England, When Winston
Churchill, then the leader of the Opposition i " Britain, was
touring in America, some persons put him questions relating
to his attitude towards the Labour Government in his
homeland to which Churchill bluntly replied, Abroad
we are one, whatever our differences at home.'’' Even
during the two wars, in spite of the immense suffering
and misery that those people had to undergo, no political
party tried to make capital out of that situation for its
own party ends. Also the repeated miserable failures
of the Communists in that country to sa^'e e\en their deposits
in the elections give us an indication of their deep-rooted sense
of nationalism.

The Lurid Contrast

It is out of a superficial view of the external set-up
of institutions in other countries without looking into their
inner spirit that some persons ask us, “Countries like
England have been progressing and triumphing over difficulties
and ordeals even without any special effort such as yours.
The people there are engaged in their normal routine life.
And the political parties carry on the affairs of the country
quite successfully. Then, where is the need for a separate
organisation such as yours and for all the day-to-day training
that you are carrying on?”

But there everyone is a born patriot. There is no
need even to mention that a particular person is a patriot
just as we dc not add the prefix ‘man’ while referring
to an individual. That he is a man is taken for granted.
But in our country we often hear the word *' patriot ’ as a
special word of tribute applied to certain persons. In
England in everyone of their institutions — whether a school
or a college, a literary club or a youth league, a social
or cultural body and even at home — the first lesson that
every child learns is, “England! With all thy faults I love
thee still!” And here, our great leaders speak of our
13

346

Bunch of Thoughts

glorious Himalayas as a place where ‘not a blade of grass
grows’ !

And again see the inspiring tradition of patriotism that
England has set up over centuries. During the whole of the
past few centuries there were hardly any traitors. During the
Second World War, there was but a single notable case
of betrayal. The son of Lord Amery who was then the
Secretary of State for India had worked for the Germans.
After the war, he was tried and sentenced to death. His
father did not even dream of exerting the influence of his
high office to get the punishment lessened. On the other hand,
he even declined to submit a mercy petition. On the day of his
son’s execution he even refused to see him, saying that it was a
sin to see the face of one who was a blot on the glorious
patriotic tradition of their family!

And here? A whole race of traitors right from the
times of Dahir and Prithviraj down to the times of British
rule was born here. And that has continued unabated
even to this day. Nowadays treachery has become almost
a passport for higher posts in our country. The gentleman
who had manoeuvred to divert a shipload of arms
bound for our country to Pakistan, when he was an
ambassador, was later appointed as the Governor of one of
our States!

There, politics is a healthy sport for them. When the
Labour Party was in power, it deputed as its ambassadors
the Leader and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Party
to America and China respectively. Can we ever dream of
such a healthy convention on the part of the party in
power in our country? Even the third-rate and fourth-rate
persons of the ruling party are considered superior to
the ablest in other parties. As a result, the entire
administration is monopolised by the ruling party. They
have not stopped even at that. The state machinery is
freely exploited to serve their party interest. Agitations and
movements by opposition parties are sought to be suppressed
by brutal government measures.

The Technique that Succeeds — II

347

New Untouchablllty

This is not a recent development either. The present
perversion began setting in even as early as 1937 when
Congress began tasting the loaves of political pover. We
know from our own experience that the leaders of Congress
were freely associating themselves with the work of the
Sangh in the initial stages. Our founder too had participated
in Congress movements even after the founding of the
Sangh. But after Congress formed ministries in several
provinces in 1937. it contracted itself into a political shell,
prohibited its members from participating in the activities
of the Sangh and introduced the new poison of ‘political
untouchability ’ in our body-politic.

Once in 1937, in a province having the Congress
ministry, police firing was ordered to suppress a political
agitation. A gentleman wrote to the Congress President
asking how a Government run by Congress which was
committed to non-violence could resort to firing. The
Congress President replied, “Our policy of non-violence is
applicable only towards the British and not towards our
people.’* And that gentleman published the correspondence
in papers!

The Radical Cure

With such germs of national disintegration eating into
the vitals of our nation, it is worse than useless to expect
that mere copying of the political and other institutions of
other countries will solve our problems and bring about
all-round national rejuvenation. Our malady is much
deeper and requires a far more radical cure. It is to root
out that basic malady that the Sangh has evolved the
method of day-to-day training, the day-to-day inculcation
of qualities such as the spirit of sacrifice, discipline and
national devotion that go to build a resurgent and unified
national life.

Therefore we say, let us come together in shakha, daily
and regularly. It is a common experience that if a

348

Bunch of Thoughts

particular idea is repeated at a fixed hour regularly it goes
deep into our being and becomes an inseparable part of our
character. Hence the untiring stress on regularity and

punctuality in the Sar-gh.

There is a small story to illustrate the point. A rich

man used to go to his beautiful garden in the afternoon to

sit in its cool shade One day a peacock crane and sat on
a tree spreading its charming feathers The owner thought,
“How nice would it be if it comes daily at this hour!” fie
prep iv ed some eatables mixed with a trace of opium and
threw them before the peacock. The peacock ate them

and felt elated. Next day also, the peacock came
remembering that sensation of happiness and the man fed
it with another dose of opium. Ultimately the bird was so
habituated that it used to come regularly at that hour
even without that opium.

That is the nature of the mind. Habit is formed by
the regular repetition of an idea in thought, speech and
action. Here regularity counts much. Irregularity cestrcvs
the formation of good character. There are so many
persons who are labouring very hard, working at t>e arwhs
or cutting down trees or breaking stones. Bui none of
them becomes a Sanciow though they are really undergoing
strenuous physical labour. That is because their labour is
disorderly and irregular. 3u: a person who takes regular
exercise, e\en with less exertion, can build up his physique
and become an athlete. The famous German general Field
Marshal Hindenburg, who was made the President of
Germany after the First World War, was agile and strong
even at the age of eighty. Asked about the secret of his
remarkable vigour he said that he used to cut wood for
about an hour regularly and punctually and was continuing
that practice even at that age.

Fate of Momentary Upsurges

It gives us a sense of elation, no doubt, while listening
to an inspiring idea or making a resolve to practise a

The Technique that Succeeds — II

349

particular thing. But how long does that feeling and
resolution last? Is it not a common experience to find our
young men making ‘solemn resolves* on certain auspicious
days to write diary daily or to take regular exercises and
so on and forgetting them on the very next day?

We often come across persons who work by fits and
starts. We also find exuberance of people's feelings and
emotions on certain occasions. But such temporary upsurges
will not help to imprint abiding samskdrs on people’s mind.
Nowadays people say that there is a wave of religious
awakening all over the country'. Religious sermons are
broadcast through loud-speakers. Millions gather to take
a dip in the Ganga every year. Vast numbers assemble for
religious discourses like purdnas and hankathds and festivals
like Ramanavami, Satyanarayana Pooja, Ganeshotsav etc.
But are all these programmes having the desired effect?
Are they able to instil in the people's mind a noble resolve
to put an end to their present-day self-centred life and to
live up to those sacred teachings of character, service and
sacrifice ?

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to remark jocularly
about persons going for Gangasnana , “Well, as they
approach the holy banks of Ganga, their sins fly from their
body and sit on the distant trees. But as soon as they
start back after their bath, the sins pounce back upon
them!” The moral is, mams character cannot be moulded
by mere momentary upsurges of emotions. It is only one
in a million who will be endowed with the mental
stamina to turn a momentary gush of feelings into an abiding
part of his character. That is why, all our great authorities
on mental discipline have ordained us not to succumb to
overflow of emotions and weep in the name of God but to
apply ourselves to a strict discipline of day-to-day penance.
Effusion of emotions will only shatter the nerves and make
the person weaker than before leaving him a moral wreck.
It is just like a liquor-addict who is left imbecile after the
effects of liquor subside.

350

Bunch of Thoughts

Once an elderly gentleman, after attending one of our
meetings, became extremely enthused and announced to
his family persons that all his family ties were cut and
thereafter he would be solely dedicated to the mission of
Sangh ! Needless to say, after the exuberance subsided he
relapsed into his old self-centred life without even so much
as remembering that ‘vow of total renunciation’ !

The Time-Honoured Technique

What then is the process for imprinting permanent
samskars ? Psychologists tell us that three factors — firstly,
constant meditation of the ideal that is to be formed into a
samskdr; secondly, constant company of persons devoted
to the same ideal; and finally, engaging the body in activities
congenial to that ideal— are necessary in fashioning the
character of a person after the ideal. But for all common
people who have to engage themselves for most part of
the day in personal and family affairs, earning money,
rearing up children and so on, this formula involving all 24
hours of the day is an impractical proposition. Even an
all-renouncing yogi cannot remain in the state of total
samadhi for more than three days ; his body will fall off
after that.

So our great builders of society have introduced a
system for the common man embodying the essence of
those principles of samskars. And that is, to keep apart
a definite period of the day, in the morning, evening or
at night, and concentrate all the powers and activities of
his body, mind and intellect on the chosen ideal at that
particular hour regularly and punctually and to remain in
the company of similar-minded devotees for at least some
period of the day.

The Sangh too has evolved the present technique
of shakha on the same time-honoured pattern of imparting
samskars. In consonance with the ideal of national re-
organisation, the process of daily samskars inspired by the
spirit of Rashtmdevo bhava (Be a devotee to Nation-God) is

The Technique that Succeeds— II

351

carried on in the shakha. Charged v.ith that spirit, all
the various apparently little things like games, wielding
of lathi, singing, marching etc, get the potency of instilling
deep samsJccirs for an organised and powerful national life.

It is the coming together of little things in an organised
manner that always goes to make a great thing. “Take
care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themsehes”
is an adage that is true to a letter in the moulding of
great characters. Great characters do not come up as
ready-made products in a day. They are built silently
and steadily, and their glorious heights scaled inch by inch
and step by step.

How to Cure Evil?

Bad characters too develop starting with a small lapse
somewhere. There is the story of a young man condemned
to the gallows for murder. To fulfil his last wish his
mother came to meet him. But as soon as he saw his
mother, he pounced upon her and bit off her ears. He
was dragged away and denounced for his brutal behaviour
even at the moment of his death. Then he exclaimed that
she was the cause of his tragic end ! He said, “ As a young
boy I once stole some money and brought it to my mother.
At that time she did not pinch my ears and set me right.
From that day onwards, that evil habit grew upon me and
I have to suffer its dire consequences today.”

The bad habits and tendencies that have grown upon
us for the past several centuries cannot be washed off in a
single day. Therefore the daily imprinting of samshdrs is
an urgent necessity. Even the body requires to be washed
daily. Then the mind which is far more susceptible to
contamination requires to be purified with much more
diligence and regularity, especially as it is continuously in
contact with various evil tendencies which are in the air
all around us. When Totapuri, the Advaitic Guru of
Sri Ramakrishna, was asked why even he, a realised soul,
was continuing all his daily routine of samsMrs, he replied

352

Bunch of Thoughts

that the mind, as long as it exists in this world, requires to
be cleansed daily, just as a vessel used for drinking water
needs a daily scrubbing.

The Man-Making Process

The Sangh has therefore evolved a course of samskars
wherein the mind, intellect and body of an individual are
trained so as to make him a living limb of the great
corporate body of our society. In a human body, for
instance, there are so many limbs and In each limb,
millions of cells. Each cell feels its identity with the entire
body and is ever ready to sacrifice itself for the sake of
the health and growth of the body. In fact, it is the self-
immolation of millions of such cells that releases the energy
for every bodily activity.

The training that is given every day in the shakha in a
strictly regulated fashion imparts that spirit of identification
and well-concerted action. That gives the individual the
necessary incentive to rub away his angularities, to behave
in a spirit of oneness with the rest of his brethren in
society and fall in line with the organised and disciplined
way of life adjusting himself to the varied outlooks of other
minds. The persons assembling there learn to obey a
single command. Discipline enters their blood. More
important than the discipline of the body is the discipline
of the mind. They learn to direct their individual emotions
and impulses towards the great national cause. Thus the
exemplary discipline that takes shape in the Sangh is self-
imposed as it stems from a spirit of intense national
dedication. Such a discipline is bound to enrich and bring
to blossom the latent potentialities of the individual in
harmony with the national good. It is such men, in full
bloom of all manly virtues, imbued with the spirit of mutual
love and co-operation and bound by the bond of self-inspired
discipline, all ready to go into action at the same time, who
go to build up an inexhaustible reservoir of national
strength.

The Technique that Succeeds — II

353

Our One Great Undoing

Discipline is thus a very important factor in national
life. Mere assemblage of people with a common goal but
without discipline has no power of concerted action. Such
an assemblage fails in achieving its goal. Every year
lakhs of pilgrims flock to have the darshan of Lord Jagan-
nath at Puri. In that rush many persons fall, break their
limbs or get crushed under the feet of others. Such
mishaps are quite a common occurrence. Doubtless all
of them have a common goal— the darshan of Lord Jagan-
nath. But as there is no order, no discipline, instead of
Jagannath’s darshan there is only confusion and disaster.
That is Ihe experience in all walks of life. A disorderly
crowd of even hundreds of persons stands nowhere in
comparison with a handful of disciplined men in the
capacity for work. In our own history we have seen that
the British armies could put to rout our armies several
times their number. The obvious reason was their superior
■discipline.

Indiscipline has been our one great undoing in past
history. The Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 was a crucial
moment for the rising Hindu Swaraj. The great Hindu
army was headed by the veteran general Sadashivarao
Peshwa and the army of the invaders by Ahmedshah
Abdally. When the officers of the Hindu army sat in
conference to decide the war strategy, Malharrao Holkar
and some others advocated guerilla warfare to bring the
enemy to his knees. But Sadashivarao who had won
laurels as a matchless general in pitched battles, decided
that a pitched battle would be more effective in smashing
the enemy at one stroke. To this Malharrao would not
agree; and in anger he withdrew from the war. The rest
of the army under Sadashivarao went into battle. There
was a critical moment when just a little help from Malhar-
rao Holkar who was at no great distance from the scene of
the battle could have turned the eventual disastrous defeat
into a great victory and probably changed the whole course

354

Bunch of Thought;

of our history. But his army simply kept looking on. And
Panipat had to witness the utter rout and ruin of the finest
flowers of our Hindu forces. The reason was, those two
persons could not agree to a common course of action,
though both had the same goal of throwing out the invader..

Demand of the Times

The spirit of discipline that is necessary for national
reorganisation as visualised by the Sangh is not merely of
the body; it is not of the police or of the military type.
Once a friend asked me whether our organisation was of
the type built by Vikramaditya or the one built by
Shankaracharya. I replied that neither would serve any
useful purpose in the present age. The military organisation
of Vikramaditya served the limited purpose of throwing
out the enemy for the time being and lasted for just over a
century. But such a technique can neither unify our
people for all time nor infuse abiding national virtues in
them. As for the latter technique of intellectual discussions
and moral discourses adopted by Shankaracharya, the
intellectual honesty, the integrity that was prevalent then
is conspicuous by its absence today. The wife of Mandana
Mishra could sit as a judge to decide the winner in that
famous debate between her husband and Shankaracharya.
And she gave her judgement in favour of Shankaracharya!
And according to the terms of the debate both Mandana
Mishra and his wife embraced sanyds and became his ardent
disciples.

But such is not the condition at present. There are
very few who are intellectually upright and honest enough
to accept what they know as right and act up to it. It is
our common experience that most of the eminent leaders
who bitterly oppose the views of the Sangh in public
express their complete agreement with them in private!
We have therefore evolved this unique technique wherein
the whole of our people are forged into a self-inspired,
well-disciplined and nationally devoted force trained to act

The Technique that Succeeds— II 355

fearlessly according to the dictates of their convictions.
Popular Misconceptions

But there are a lot of misconceptions regarding this
true nature of our discipline. When the people, accustomed
as they are to see military and police type of discipline
where there is the element of fear of punishment or lure of
money and position, see the spirit of stern discipline that
pervades the programmes of the Sangh and the behaviour
of its workers, they begin to say that the Sangh is a semi-
military body, a private army and so on. It only betrays
their supreme ignorance, their incapacity to appreciate the
spirit of oneness, comradeship and dedication to a mission
which mould the behaviour of its members for self-restraint
and self-imposed discipline.

It is the same ignorance that makes some people ask
us, “What is the use of your training in lathi and such
outmoded weapons in this age of atomic missiles?” They
forget that it is the army that has to receive training in the
handling of weapons like atomic bombs and missiles. In
no country, not even in America and Russia, are such things
allowed to be handled by the common people. Even
in those countries so far as the common people are con-
cerned, training is imparted through elementary physical
exercises and simple instruments. Such a training is
necessary to instil discipline of the body and the mind
In the people.

There are some others— probably finding it rather
troublesome to undergo the regular course of our organisa-
tion!— who say that they do not desire to be bound by any
restrictions, that these are the days of ‘individual freedom’
and so on. One such gentleman charged the Sangh as
being ‘ fascist ’ because, according to him, all persons in the
Sangh right from Kashmir to Kanyakumari whether aged
or in their teens gave the same kind of reply to a question,
which indicated that there was no freedom of thought
in the Sangh! I asked him, “I say two and two makes

356

Bunch of Thoughts

four, what do you say?” “'Why, of course, four!” he
replied. I said, “Then you are not a democrat at all!
You have given the same reply as I have given and therefore
you too are a fascist ! ” The simple fact that there can be
but one correct reply to any given question did not occur to
that gentleman.

It is but natural that the persons in the Sangh imbued
with the correct national perspective react spontaneously
to the various national problems that arise from time to
time in the same manner. To mistake it for mental
regimentation is to call the spirit of nationalism itself as
an instrument of regimentation ! It is the undigested modern
ideas like ‘freedom of thought’, ‘freedom of speech’ etc.,
that are playing havoc in the minds of our young men who
look upon freedom as licence and self-restraint as mental
regimentation !

Swayamsevak, a Missionary

The discipline nurtured in the Sangh is the spontaneous
self-restraint of a cultured people. It is a discipline wherein
each one feels that he has a higher duty to the nation and
that his personal and family wants can wait. He prepares
himself to respond to that higher call in a well-ordered,
co-ordinated manner. It is the type of discipline where
all will pool together their intelligence, feelings, physical
energies and their material possessions in the greater cause
of national welfare.

It is this spirit of spontaneous and willing self-restraint
and self-sacrifice that marks out a person who undergoes
training in the shakha. He is called a * swayamsevak’.
A swayamsevak is not a mere volunteer— as is ordinarily
understood these days— who moves about in uniform on
certain public occasions and participates in physical
demonstrations. No, he is not a passive entity simply
carrying out some manual work free of charge at the
bidding of others. The swayamsevak is a missionary with a
national vision. Intensely aware that he is to work out

The Technique that Succeeds— II

357

the great plan of organising a nation torn asunder for the
past thousand years with thousand and one considerations,
he resolves to prepare himself for that historic role. He
learns to harmonise and direct his natural impulses,
emotions and tendencies so as to become an effective
instrument for the task of national reconstruction. He effaces
from his mind all ideas of selfish gains, of pelf and power, of
name and fame, while he serves the nation.

The Brooding Spirit

This spirit is manifest in all the various aspects of the
Sangh technique. The swayamsevalcs who participate in
the various training camps and conferences, however poor
the} 7 may be, meet from their own pockets all the expenses.
They pay the camp fees, purchase their uniform, spend for
their to and fro charges— everything inspired with a spirit of
self-reliance and self-sacrifice.

The ancient tradition of G umdakahind that the Sangh
has followed is also in keeping with this spirit. Once a
year on t N e auspicious Gum Poomimd day, every swayam-
sev&k worships the sacred Guru, the Bhagawa Dhwaj, and
offers his t lahshina (offering of money). The system of
fund collection or monthly and yearly subscription has no
place in the Sangh. The offerings are done in a spirit of
worship. The swayamsevaks do not even desire their
names and offerings to be made public. A swayamsevak
does not in fact consider it a sacrifice, but a natural duty
for which he has no right to expect anything in return, not
even name or fame. They are trained in the spirit of the
saying of Tukaram :

STidT OTTOT

(Now 1 exist only for the service of others). The words of an
inspired poet —

TO TOST 3PTT Tf f%*T TO * t|

(May your glory , 0 Mother , remain immortal; it matters little

358

Bunch of Thoughts

if we survive for a few days more or not) always stir the soul
of a sawayamsevak.

But unfortunately, the general atmosphere in out-
country today presents a striking contrast. The spirit
of e cashing one’s sacrifices % of demanding something in
return for one’s services is raging everywhere. The
craving for name and fame is seen even in the worship of
God. We see stones and tables in temples displaying the
names of the donors. Once in my travels a Swami was
with me. I found a name inscribed on his vessel. The
name was neither his nor of the Ashram to which he be-
longed. When I asked him the reason, the Swami explain-
ed that it was the name of the person who had gifted a
large number of such utensils to the Asnrama! Can we call
this a dan ? Any offering made with the object of procur-
ing something in return— even a name— is not an offering
but a bargain. In the Sangh, such a mercenary attitude
is never allowed to develop. We deem the offering made
with real devotion as the noblest and highest, just as Jesus
considered the poor old woman’s small coin a nobler offer-
ing than the treasures donated to the Temple by persons
rolling in wealth.

Foundation for Success

The various systems and conventions evolved in the Sangh
are all inspired with that spirit of self-offering. And the
one-hour shakha is the fountain-head of that spirit.

Once an elderly lady was doing the various household
works with her left hand only. I asked her the reason. She
said that she had offered the right hand to God for one
year and that it would be used only for His worship.
Though a simple vow, how beautifully it symbolises the
spirit of devotion to God amidst all the various distracting
activities of the day! Verily that is the spirit behind the
man-making process of the shakha involving ‘one-hour offering’
that moulds the men who participate in that process for
dedicated efforts all through their life.

The Technique that Succeeds— II

359

Often people wonder whether this small one-hour
programme wall be able to bring about the magnificent and
mighty transformation of society that the Sangh has
conceived of. It has been the unfailing experience that
people follow living examples and not dry precepts. And
the one-hour training moulds such living images of national
character as radiate an irresistible power of drawing people
to their path.

There is an illuminating incident in the life of Sri
Ramakrishna. Once a lady brought her child to him and
requested him to cure the child of its inordinate infatuation
for sweets as it was telling upon its health. Sri Ramakrishna
asked her to come after a week. She came. But he
again asked her to come a few days later. When she
again came Sri Ramakrishna called the child near him
and said, “Dear child, it is not good to eat too much of
sweets. Give it up.” The child instantly promised to do
so. From that day onwards the child gave up sweets. The
disciples who had observed this asked Sri Ramakrishna,
“Sir, why did you not tell the child not to eat sweets on
the very first day, but instead made that lady to come
here thrice all the way?” Sri Ramakrishna replied, “Well,
I had myself a weakness for sweets! Then how could I
advise the child to give up that weakness? Even if I had
advised, my words would have failed to impress the child.
So I asked the lady to come again. But during that period
I could not give any thought to it. So I had to ask her
to come once again. After that I gave up attachment to
sweets altogether and so I felt myself competent to advise
the child.”

There is also another fact of human experience that
all the mighty manifestations of power and endeavour are
invariably made up of countless small little efforts.

One of our friends narrated his experience after returning
from a pilgrimage. He had also visited the tomb of a
Muslim peer. The moulvi there would ask the visitors to
lift a big stone lying nearby. After they tried and failed.

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Bunch of Thoughts

he would ask all of them to apply their hands to the stone
and command them to lift it up with the cry ‘Peer Sahib
ki jai.’ And lo, the stone would go up ! Thai was taken to
be a miracle of that peer. After listening to that ‘miracle’,
I called a few swayamsevaks and asked them to apply a
finger each to a stone bigger than that stone. Then i asked
them to shout ‘Jai’ and lift. And what a surprise, the
stone rose to a greater height than that ‘peer stone’ ! And
the ‘miraculous power’ of the Peer Sahib lay exposed !
The secret of that ‘power’ lay in the simultaneous and
co-ordinated application of small bits of effort and the
shouting of ‘Jai’ was only an aid. And so can millions
of men, offering one hour a day in a spirit of dedicated
and disciplined action, move mountains and work miracles
in our national life.

Nucleus for Integration

Here a question arises whether it is practicable to bring
all the crores and crores of our people on fc sanghasthaiT ?
(shakha-ground) and make them go through the day-to-day
activities of the shakha. Further, the Sangh is restricted
to men only, debarring half of the society, i. e., women, from
the daily shakha. Then there is the substantial section
of old men and children and many others too who, for
various unavoidable reasons, are unable to go through the
regular course of shakha training. How then are we going
to succeed in reorganising the whole society through this
day-to-day man-moulding process?

It is to cover this paramount aspect of work that,
apart from the one-hour shakha, the swayamsevaks meet
our other brethren in society and share in their joys and
sorrows and inspire confidence in their hearts by their
sterling character, by their spirit of all-embracing love and
disciplined and dedicated service. The men and women,
the young and old, in the homes of swayamsevaks and their
sympathisers and friends become charged with the spirit of
the Sangh. The shakha becomes the symbol and the

The Technique that Succeeds — II

361

spearhead of the collective love and will of the people of
that area. Thus steadily and silently, these day-to-day
and heart-to-heart contacts during the rest of the day enve-
lop all sections of people— even those who do not actually
partake of the training in shakha— in unbreakable bonds oF
mutual love and devotion to the national cause.

Ganga Merging in Ocean

Thus with infinite patience and persuasion the swayam-
sevaks reach and touch each and every heart, in hamlet
and in city. Everywhere they carry the same ennobling:
atmosphere of national oneness. Dissensions born out.
of apparent differences of language, province, food and
dress vanish in their radiating presence. Even in villages,
and far off forest abodes they speak to them in the language
they understand. They narrate the stories of Rama and
Krishna and the examples of our great saints and heroes, en-
grave the complete picture of our motherland and its sanc-
tity in their minds by reference to the places of pilgrimage
spread all over the land and make them conscious of a wide
national brotherhood through religious and social functions
and thus convert them into an inexhaustible source of national
power.

Swayamsevaks also meet at the taluk, district, provin-
cial and ai -Bharat levels. Training camps are organised
which arc practical processes of national integration. Fired
with the vision and trained in the technique the swayam-
sevaks carry forward the torch of this Rashtra Dharma to
every nook and corner of the land. And looking at such
lives the people in general too feel inspired to suffer and
sacrifice in the cause of the nation. Whether in affluence
or in adversity the people are drawn spontaneously into
following in their footsteps. The latent energies of a whole
people are thus released for national reconstruction. And
the dream of a resurgent and reorganised national life rises
to life.

The various spheres of national life will then become-

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Bunch of Thoughts

self-generating centres for continuing the tradition set up
by the swayamsevaks. The process of samskars will continue
to mould generation after generation and thus serve as the
perennial life-spring for national reorganisation and resurgence.
Thus the process that the Sangh has set in motion in our
national life is eternal and all-absorbing. Having realised the
dream of a natural state of organised national life —each one
of its institutions and traditions consciously and diligently
watering the living seeds of national samskars— the Sangh
will have no need to retain its separate institutional name
.and form. The Sangh will then merge in the nation like
the Ganga in the ocean and live as the moving national
.spirit for all time t o come.

XIX The Technique that Succeeds
3. efocacy

Moulding lion-hearted men— For spontaneous unity ,
self-restraint, self-sacrifice — Technique that suits— Role
of elders.

o-j the technique?

T HE history of the growth and the beneficial effects of
the work of the Sangh over the past four decades has
amply borne out the practicability of the vision of its great
founder. The technique that he evolved has proved its
merit to the hilt. It is now established and accepted even
by those who do not belong to the Sangh that this is a
technique which succeeds.

The Potency of the Sacred Dust

Once a big Army officer met me in Punjab. He
asked, “ What is the special training that is given in the
Sangh?” I said, “Only playing and singing.” He
replied, “How can it be? There must be something more
than that. Because, personally I know of instances in
Punjab during those terrible days of Partition where the
Sangh swayamsevaks excelled even our trained military
men in heroism and sacrifice. I also know that many
of them have even laid down their lives cheerfully while-

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Bunch of Thoughts

protecting our people. So I would like to know the special
training which could make them such heroes.” I explained
to him the simple programme of our shakha and said,
“‘Kabaddi’ sums up our whole training.” Hearing my
reply he stared at me with an unbelieving look.

That is the potency of the sacred dust of our sanghasihan
where the children of our great motherland come and
play together, sing and pray together for the glory of h'.eir
divine mother, Bharat Mata. It is the same spirit as the
one that made the Duke of Wellington utter that famous
sentence — 44 The Battle cf Waterloo was won on the play-
grounds of Eton and Harrow.”

"The Matchless Technique

Today, especially, when forces of fission are trying to
tear our nation to pieces, the Sangha-shakha alone is giving
the clarion call to ah people to come and drink al its
living springs of abiding national unity. Even in the
■early days cf the Sangh, when our revered founder was
alive, there was an incident which indicated the potency
of the Sangh technique. There was a Sangh camp in
Wardha in 1934 where over one thousand swayumsevaks
were pui up in barracks and tents. Just ncaiby was
Gandhiji's ashram. Seeing the camp humming with the
activities of several hundreds of young men, he desired to
visit it. Accordingly, our Wardha District Sangha-
chaiak, who was formerly Secretary of the Provincial
Congress Committee, welcomed Gandhiji to the camp.
Gandhiji came and saw all the arrangements for residence,
mess, etc., of the camp. Then he enquired, “How many
Harijans are here?” Our Sanghachaiak replied; “ l do
not know, for I have not enquired.” “You can enquire
at least now and tell me.” “That I cannot do. As far
as we are concerned they are all Hindus and that is
sufficient for us.” “Then shall I ask?” “That is left to
you”, replied our Sanghachaiak. After making persistent
enquiries directly with the swayamsevaks Gandhiji came

The Technique that Succeeds— III

365

to know that there were persons from all castes, including-
Harijans, carrying on all the camp programmes together,
right from eating to playing, in a spirit of joy and harmony,
without even being conscious of their castes. He was simply
amazed. After that Doctorji met Mahatmaji and explained
to him how the Sangh was succeeding in achieving unity'
by its technique of stressing the inherent oneness and
ignoring superficial differences.

Successful on Al! Scores

Several have been the occasions when the spirit of
discipline and dedication of the swayamsevaks was put on
trial and the man-moulding process of the shakha tested
again and again. And after every such ordeal the mettle
of the swayamsevaks has shone all the more bright. In
1948, when Government had clamped a ban on the Sangh
ignoring all canons of justice, the Sangh was forced to'
launch a countrywide movement in vindication of justice
and fairplay in national life. In spite of the all out
measures of the Government to suppress the movement, its
complete success only proved the matchless potency of the
technique of the Sangh in moulding men with a spirit of
unbounded sacrifice, heroism and discipline in the national
cause.

The other techniques that we see all around us today*
no doubt, make a loud noise. But what exactly will there
be inside is a point in question. A drum doubtless makes a
big noise, but it is all hollow inside! The loud trumpeting
and beating of drums by others will not therefore affect the
workers of the Sangh in the least. The Sangh has a
method that has proved its efficacy on all scores in realising
the dream of a resurgent and reorganised national life.

The Method that Suits

There is the instance of a very notable personality,,
great but not famous. As we know, not all great men
are famous and not all famous men are great! Once an

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Bunch of Thoughts

European gentleman said to him, “What a queer type of
dress you Hindus wear! You wear dhoti; and when you
have to fight, you will get entangled in it and fall. ” That
great man sharply replied, “Who told you that we are
always on the look-out for a fight? We are cultured human
beings. We think of the peace of the world. Om shantih,
, shantih , shantih — that is our motto. We behave and dress
accordingly. You have no peace of mind and are always
with daggers drawn at each other. And so you dress as
though you are on a battle-field all the time. We are
fearless, peaceful and therefore dress ourselves accordingly.
Only when we are challenged, we put on the warrior dress.”
What a fitting answer it was!

Similar is our method, eminently suited for the parti-
cular goal that we have chosen. Often, the simple rugged
appearance of our daily shakha baffles the keenest of
intellects and makes them doubt whether it can take us to
such a sublime goal. But suppose a gardener wants to grow
mango fruits. Does he place the seed in a pot of honey
scented with perfume in order that it may give rise to more
delicious fruits? Will he not, on the other hand, plant
it in the soil mixed with manure? It is a matter of
experience that in the process of imparting samskars
of strength and character a rugged exterior is a sheer
necessity.

Role of Elders

Looking at the external form of our daily programmes
in the shakha there is a misconception, especially among
our elderly generation, that all this daily routine of
playing, physical exercises, singing, prayer etc., are meant
only for the boys and youths and that the role of elders
is only as sympathisers, blessing and supporting the
youngsters. That would be totally missing the very spirit
of our organisation. When we say, this is a work of
reorganising society, it implies the present society. And by
‘present society’ we mean those who arc the elders — the

The Technique that Succeeds— III

367

grihasthas— in society. Nobody will say that children are
the present society. Suppose some naked kiddies are
playing by the roadside in a town. Will anybody who
sees them say that the people in that town go about naked
always playing on the roadside? Children are after all the
generation of tomorrow. So, the responsibility of organising
our society lies squarely on the shoulders of the present
generation, i. e., the elders. As such, it is they who have
to take the lead in actively working for this great mission
of national reorganisation.

When this point is put forth, usually two reasons are
advanced by the elders to plead their inability. Firstly,
insufficiency of the time at their disposal. But is it not a
fact that it is the busy man with capacities who can find
time to take up extra activity in the public field also ?
He alone is capable of adjusting his other works and keeping
apart some time for it once he feels it his essential duty..
It is only an idle man who says that he finds no time.
Though this appears a bit paradoxical, nevertheless this
is the truth.

Secondly, there is a feeling that being respectable
elders, it would not be befitting them to move about and
take part in physical programmes with half-pants on just
like boys. They feel it below their dignity. But is it a
right attitude? If it is a fact that we do possess prestige
in society, does it reside in our inherent worth or in the
external dress? If we imagine that it is due to our outer
dress, then its entire credit must go to a tailor or a washerman !
On the other hand, if we have no real worth or prestige
at all, then the outer get-up can help little to make up
that inner deficiency!

There is a very important view-point which we should
bear in mind in this regard. It is said in the Bhagavad
Gita —

(As the great ones behave , so do the rest of the people.) When

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Bunch of Thoughts

the elders with real worth and prestige in society take to a
particular mode of behaviour to suit a noble ideal, the same
will become popular and respectable in the eyes of others
also. In fact, by that, they will be only adding to their
prestige. For instance, when Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit
Malaviyaji had gone to England to participate in the
R. T. C., they were dressed in our own swadeshi style.
However, their prestige did not suffer on that account.
On the other hand, people’s respect for them increased.

A special responsibility has devolved today upon the
present elderly generation to protect the budding young
generation from the current atmosphere breeding
poisonous germs of dissension and dissipation so that it may
flower into a noble and virile manhood capable of making
our nation rise to its natural heights of greatness and glory.
For that purpose they have to set an example in their daily
life by becoming the living instruments of the mission of
national reorganisation that the Sangh has been successfully
pursuing all these years.

The Happy Augury

Once Sister Nivedita, the chosen disciple of Swami
Yivekananda, said, “If only Hindus collectively pray daily
for ten minutes in the morning and in the evening, they
will become an invincible society.” The daily shakha of
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh augurs the realisation of
the passionate dream of that dedicated soul.

May we all rise in response to the supreme call of
action, in the form of shakha— of steady, silent, perseverant
and day-to-day rebuilding of a unified country-wide
brotherhood, disciplined and dedicated at the feet of our
sacred nation.

XX Character— Personal and National

Our cultural speciality: personal character — Purity of
means — Personal laxity, a national danger — Tragedy
of passive * goodness’ — National character , the life-
breath — Verdict of history — Devotion is not bargain-
ing— Power of devotion — When character blooms.

I N our national tradition character has always occupied
the place of foremost importance. Character has two
facets : the or-e which is personal, and the other which
manifests itself in our relationship with society. Both these
aspects of our character should be pure and unsullied. But
these days we often hear people saying that if a man is
working well in the public field, why should we look at his
personal conduct? Maybe he is addicted to a number of
vices, but when he is doing good to the people why should
we pry into his private life ?

Our Concept

Hower, our culture has always held high the purity
of personal character. We have never called a person
a philosopher who is selfish or given to various vices
like wine, woman and gold. For us, the philosopher
is more than all a man of absolute purity and austerity
of character. Right from the ancient seers down to the
great personalities of modern times, all those whom we

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consider as standard-bearers of our philosophy and culture
have been wholly pure— their thought, word and deed all
in tune with the highest truths. Such men alone have
been the real glowing symbols of our national heritage.
But such is not the example set up by workers in the public
field these days. There is a general feeling that if a person
is generous in giving donations or delivers fine speeches
or has gone to jail a number of times for a public cause
then his private conduct, howsoever abhorrent, may be
condoned.

Purity of 4 Means’

However, our culture says the 4 means ’—the individual—
for achieving the ‘ideal’ — the social good— must also
be chaste and holy. Many times we hear people saying
that the end justifies the means. Most of the modem
ideas and ideologies which seem to be catching the
imagination of the people today belong to this category.
It means that the individual— the ‘means’ for bringing
about any social change— is relegated to the background.
Therefore we see the degeneration of man going on at a
terrific pace all over the world, having thrown to winds
all considerations of the human element in pursuit of an
end ordained mostly by politicians. But, the command
of our culture is different. We revere a Rama and a
Shivaji as much for their glorious national achievements
as for their pure, unimpeachable personal character. The
view that some little failing in personal character needs
to be ignored or even justified, provided he w'orks all right
in the public field, is against our grain.

It is, however, true that when choice became inevitable
between two evils, we have tolerated— but not justified—
some failings in personal character when it did not come
in the way of social interest.

Bad means can never yield good results in the long
run. If for sometime bad means appears to give good
results, it is only temporary. It is like trying to warm

Character— Personal and National

371

ourselves by sitting amidst fire when caught in a hailstorm.
The warmth will soon result in our total reduction to
ashes. We are all no doubt aware of how electioneering is
carried on by various persons and parties in our country
today. There is an instance of the 1937 elections. I
asked a certain Congress candidate why he was stooping
to low tactics. He replied, “Well, evil has to be met with
evil. 5 ’ I asked him, “Can you make coal-tar white by
adding charcoal?'’ and added, “If this logic is pursued,
a time will come when in this land of ours there will
not be a single individual who will choose to be good
and honest. Even supposing we are to suffer for sometime
should we not fight our way through all those evils?”
Today, things have come to such a pass that it is only
those as have mastered more and more of those evil tactics
who rise higher in power and position. As such the
importance of the character of the individual — the purity
of the means— can never be over-emphasised.

A Potential Danger

On the national plane too, if a person is loose in
character and given to vices, he can be a source of danger
to the nation. Our nation is surrounded by various other
nations and it is matter of history that no two nations
are either permanently friendly or permanently hostile
to each other. The relationships go on changing. Each
country is guided by its own self-interest and does
not hesitate to stoop to any tactics to achieve its ends.
So they are all in a way ‘potential enemies’ to our country.
It is all right that, while speaking and moving among
others, we cherish sentiments of friendship, world peace
and world fraternity and even strive for them. But the
statesmen who guide the destinies of the country must
always keep in view this hard reality of the world
which can be ignored only at our peril.

These ‘potential’ enemies or even the open enemies
who surround our nation will certainly try to exploit

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Bunch of Thoughts

our weaknesses to their advantage. There is that well-
known incident of the First World War. At one stage
it was found that Germans used to get the clue to the
plans which the war-lords of the ‘Allies’ used to discuss
and decide upon. Before they were pur into action, the
enemy forestalled them and made all their plans a mockery.
For a long time it went on like this. Only when special
officers were deputed to trace the leakage, it was discovered
that in the camp of the important generals there was
a woman spy, Mata Hari by name. To those lustful
persons she appeared charming. She was also well-versed
in singing, dancing and ail such enticing arts. She allured
those generals and wormed herself into their hearts. She
stayed with them in their tents. They had such implicit
faith in her that they freely discussed their plans in her
presence. But she, on her part, was regularly giving
out those plans to the other side. It was only after she
w 7 as traced and caught that victory could be achieved. If
those generals had been persons of upright character and
considered the whole of womanhood as a manifestation
of the Divine Mother, as every Hindu is expected to
consider, they could have avoided so much of disservice
and disaster to their countries.

Story with a Moral

Some have a weakness for flattery. If anyone show-
ers praise upon them, they become elated and inflated and
will be prepared to do anything that is desired of them.
One can resist many things but not flattery. It is easier
to digest the deadliest of poisons than to digest praise and
honour. As the story goes, Bhagawan Shankara drank
the deadly poison for the protection of all and remained
unaffected. But even he fell a prey to the praises of
Bhasmasura and invited troubles to himself! Praise puffs
up a man like an inflated football, always being kicked
about from one side to the other. Anybody may come,
just praise him in all superlatives, get his own self-interest

Character— Personal and National

373

fulfilled and go away leaving the man disillusioned or
probably net !

There is an old story carrying this moral. Once
a crow with a piece of meat in its beak von: sitting on
a tree. Seeing the crow, a fox sat down under the tree
and looking up at toe crow began praising. “What a
charming colour ycu have, sister! It is t .e same shy2i. t a
vcrrr.a as tnat of Lord Krishna. And the las: time I heard
you sing, oh, even the Oandharvas would : a\ e envied
you ! Kcw fortunate I would be to ge: another chance of
listening to your divine music!” Tits crow began to rock
to and fro in great elation and thought. “ AU right, let
me oblige this fellow.” Ar.J as it opened its beak the
piece of meat fell down. Toe fox snatched it readily and
went its way s vying, “X lave r-o love fer year music
any more:”

This weakness for flattery is there in many of our
great personal i ties to da; . And mere are many cur. ring
men in re world who make use of this subtle mswumem
of praise. W ben tie; say, “What a peace-loving, non-
violent and generous man you are! Yc-u are o :e 01 the
greatest inter national figures in the world” and so on, our
leaders are swept off tr-eir feet and grant whatever they
ask for, whether it be canal-water, money, material or our
army men as cannon-fodder in conflicts all over the world.

Alert at Every Step

If therefore we are to be of service to tite nation under
all circumstances, ws have to set our face sternly against
these failings and develop a pure personal character.
Especial Iv when a worker m the public field moves about
among the people the public eye becomes nvetted upon
him. ~ Even if he slips a bit, it is marked out and the
people will ejaculate, “Oh! What a fall!” They never-
theless overlook far more serious lapses on the part of
other common men. When we wear a coloured shirt it
makes very little difference in appearance whether we wear

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it for a day or for a fortnight. But, on a clean white
cloth even a drop of water leaves its mark for a time.
So the purer we aspire to become, the more the vigilance
we have to exercise over each moment of our life. We
have to alert ourselves at every step as though the whole
of society outside is keenly eyeing us only to peck at and
expose our failings.

Enough of 4 Gentlemanliness 9

Then we come to the national aspect.

We see around us a number of persons with good
personal character. Maybe they have remained good
and harmless merely because they have had no chance or
daring to take to evil ways! It is no use having such
negative, inactive, so-called goodness and gentlemanliness.
Doctorji used to say humorously of such persons, “See,

what a thorough gentleman Sriman is ! He goes

to the office punctually, returns home in the evening,
chats with his wife and children, eats and sleeps. He has
never once tried to interfere in others’ matters. Although
he has been residing here for over twenty-five years, he
does not even know who his neighbours are nor do they
know much about him. Rarely do we come across such a
good, harmless, unassuming gentleman!” Doctorji would
then chastise that so-called ‘ gentlemanliness ' that made
the individual impervious to the joys and sorrows of
his neighbours, and submit meekly to the insults and
humiliations done to his society. It was this cursed
mentality, he used to say, that lay at the root of all our
national ills.

Even in the past there had been quite a number of
pious and well-meaning persons in our land. In spite of
that, we have had to face disasters continuously over the
last thousand years. Some have even gone to the length
of asserting that it was this too much of personal goodness
that landed our nation in troubles. But it is not a correct
reading of history. The real reason was that we lacked in

Character— Personal -\nd National

375

national character— the essential counterpart of personal
character. We are not mere solitary individuals but are
invisible parts of the whole society. In that relationship
also we should express and uphold purity of character. If
this aspect is ignored, mere piety and goodness of the
individual will be o; little avail in the cause of the nation.
Not merely that. If society does not survive, the indi-
vidual goodness and character also will be trampled under
the feet of barbaric aggressors. That is what has happened
in our past history.

Lurid Examples

To give a glaring example, the Raja Kama of Gujarat
had a Prime Minister who was a great scholar of Vedas
and also well-versed in various arts and sciences. Once
the King, in a moment of weakness, abducted the wife of
one of his sardars. At this the Prime Minister was beside
himself with rage and took a vow to punish the King for
that sin. He felt that all his powers of piety and religious
learning were challenged. What was the course he adopt-
ed to fulfil his vow? He knew that Muslim armies were
poised on the northern border of Gujarat. Prior to that,
they had even made several abortive attempts to over-
run and subjugate Gujarat. The Prime Minister directly
went to the Muslim Sultan in Delhi and soughi his help to
punish his King for the sin he had committed. The enemy
was only too glad to snatch that golden oportunity.
Equipped with the valuable information given out by the
Prime Minister, who knew all the secrets of the defences
of his kingdom, the enemy marched on Gujarat. And the
powerful Hindu outpost of Karnavati, which had so far
effectively checked the Muslim expansion into the South
fell. Thereafter, not only Gujarat but the whole of South
lay prostrate at the feet of Muslim marauders. What did
the Prime Minister gain after all ? Doubtless, the King
was killed, but along with him thousands of the Prime
Minister’s own kith and kin were put to the sword.

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Countless women were molested before his very eyes,
temples razed to the ground a r.d his own residence where he
used to recite Vedas and worship God turned into a
slaughter-house of cows, in addhlon to the slavery of a vast
portion of our motherland for centuries tc come !

We see that, on the one hand, the King was loose-
in his personal character bur strong in the national aspect
and, on the other hand, the Prime Minister was personally
full of peity. of God-fearing nature and all that, but devoid
of national character wTic.i enables a man to judge the
ultimate well-being of the nation as a whole and urges
him to sacrifice his all including his personal notions
of righteousness at the altar- of his nation’s well-being.
Thus both the King and the Prime Minister became
responsible fcr such a great calamity to a cause which both
of them cherished.

In fact, the perverted notion of personal character and
dkarma exhibited by that Prime Minister is not a solicary
instance in our history. It is sufficiently deep-rooted as to
produce a whole race of traitors all down these centuries.
It was the ‘devout’ worshippers of Ishwara who guided
and aided the Mohammed of Ghazni, who had set out with
the declared objective of desecrating Somnath. Jayasingh,
the famous sardar of Aurangazeb, who came to destroy
Shivaji, too, was a man of learning, an ardent worshipper
of God and endowed with many a remarkable quality of
head and heart. But in vain did Shivaji appeal to him in
the name of sioadech and svxidltarma and call upon him to
lead the patriotic forces against the cruel foreigner instead
of remaining his slave. But Jayasingn was quite
contented with his ‘ devotion to God ’ and his oath of
‘loyalty to the Emperor’. What a dangerous perversion
of the concept of devotion to God and of one’s sense of
personal integrity and loyalty ! It is clear that only when
the twin aspects of character are manifest that both the
individual and the society progress and prosper. They
are like the two faces of a coin — one face having the

Character— Personal and National

377

imprint of national insignia and the other carrying its value.
Erasion of any one face will render it useless.

The National Aspect

It is essential, therefore, that personal goodness and
purity of character must be made active and dynamic in
the national cause. It must express itself in the form of
complete dedication to the nation that does not expect
anything in return, be it name or fame or any gain what-
soever. We should not worry whether the people whom
we serve praise us or not. In fact, it would be better for
us if they do not. Because we are then free from the
bondage of public praise which may tie us down to an
undesirable course. We look upon our nation as our
Chosen Deity. Our dedication, our offering of all that we
have, should be in a spirit of worshipping the Nation-God.
Then how can we ask for anything in return?

Today, this spirit of unreserved sacrifice and dedication
has all but disappeared. If persons go to serve in the
public field they want something in return ; if not money, a
name, a jaikar or at least a photograph in some paper.
Once an eminent leader of our country, always accustomed
to receiving big ovations, went to a place. He was shocked
to see no one present there to receive him. There were no
slogans, no garlands and no photographs. He felt insulted
and actually went back at once ! This is a polished way
of selfish behaviour. Other practical and paying ways
are also being practised! If in the name of the nation
a person serves himself, then it is not rdshtra-bhakti but
swartha-bhakti. For such a person service of the people is
only a mask to further his own personal glory.

These days even worship of God is carried on in the
same fashion by many. They pray putrdn dehi dfoanam deM
— ‘ Oh, God! Give me sons, give me wealth’— and so on.
If there is a demand for something, then it is not worship,
t is carrying on mere business. All our scriptures and
holy men have derided that ignoble attitude. Worship
14

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Bunch of Thoughts

is for the sake of worship, for the very joy of it. If at all
we pray for anything, it is for a greater capacity and greater
worthiness to worship, greater strength to pursue the path
of service and sacrifice.

There is the instance of Yudhishthira in Mahabharata.
When the Pandavas along with Draupadi were roaming
about in the forests, Draupadi observed Yudhishthira
constantly repeating the name of God. Being keenly
aware of their woeful condition she asked bitterly, “Why
do you always take the name of God? Even from your
childhood you have been devoted to Him. You have
performed so many yagnas and all the duties enjoined
by the sMstras. But till now, how has God responded
to you? You have been even deprived of your rightful
throne and you are now made to wander about from place
to place, always under the shadow of danger. Are you
not tired of repeating His name even now?” Yudhishthira
gently replied, “Look at those Himalayas! How peaceful
and majestic! Do we not love it? Is it because we
expect anything from it? We love it because of its solemn
grandeur, its serenity and purity. So is God, but infinitely
more grand. In the presence of such sublime grandeur
I have nothing to ask, except to enjoy its bliss and love it
all the more.”

Power of Devotion

Devotion is not business. It is sheer self-surrender.
It is all one-way traffic; we only give. It is only persons
of such absolute dedication who can raise the nation to
glorious heights from amidst a heap of ruins.

The inspiring example of Khando Ballal is before
us. After Sambhaji ascended the throne, because of some
past prejudices, he put to death Khando Ballal’s father
who was one of the Ashta Pradhans of Shivaji. Khando
Ballal was at that time a proud, heroic young man. But he
gulped down that agony and insult silently. And again
when Sambhaji, who was addicted to women and wine, cast

Character — Personal and National

37 9

his evil eyes on his sister, he allowed her to end her life to
save her chastity, but he himself never forsook his loyalty
to Sambhaji. For, he knew that Sambhaji, with all his
personal vices, was then the unifying symbol of the resurgent
Hindu Swaraj around which all Hindu forces were trying
to rally. Later, when Sambhaji was captured by Aurangzeb,
it was Khando Ballal who risked his life in a hazardous
attempt to free him. True to his spirit of dedication to a
cause, Rajaram became his point of loyalty after the end
of Sambhaji. Once again we see him casting the life of his
own son in mortal peril and giving away all his property
in a successful bid to free Rajaram, who lay besieged in
Jinji fort. Ultimately be sacrificed his life as the final
offering in the cause of swaraj. What a glorious and
unreserved self-immolation !

It is as a result of such sacrifices, not merely of one’s
life but all that one holds near and dear including one’s
ego, that the entire course of history changes. Aurangzeb,
who had come down to the South with an army of five
lakhs after Shivaji’s passing away to put out the smouldering
embers of the spirit of swaraj , was himself enveloped in
the flames that blazed forth from the sacrificial pyres of
such heroic souls as Khando Ballal and had to enter his
grave in the South itself.

When Character Blooms

Such is real national character. Let us develop it in
our lives by constant endeavour. With our hearts overflowing
with pure love for the whole society, with no trace of
selfishness or expectation for our self, let us serve our
nation. And may the lotus of our character blossom in
the bright rays of pure and sacred national devotion.

Let us aspire and strive for such an unwavering and
unreserved spirit of devotion— a devotion which rises
above the ordinary plane of intellect and ego and enters
into the very marrows of our being. Let that deep,
serene and perennial flow of pure devotion permeate

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the whole of our being. All great lives beckon us to this
one direction —the direction of single-minded dedication.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a scholar of unchallenged
eminence. He had defeated all his great contemporaries
in discussions on all the varied spiritual subjects. But
with all that brilliance of intellect and vastness of learning,
he later on gave up all discussions and arguments, and
to those who came to discuss he would only say in words
charged with devotion — Bari bol, Bari bol. The thrill of
devotion in those words would carr}' away the listener in
its current and make him realise the vanity of dry discussions
and the grandeur of devotion.

Such a person of intense devotion develops extra-
ordinary powers for achieving his goal. Even in our daily
life do we not see that an ordinary workman works best
when he loves and adores his work, an artist is at his best
when he forgets himself in drawing the picture after his
own heart ? Let us try to develop such a state of perfect
concentration in the path of national devotion and make
our lives living examples of sterling character in all its
aspects.

XXI Be Men with Capital 4 M’

Be foundation stones — Ideal of service — Self-reliance;
glowing examples — Curse of careerism — Choosing the
right ideal — Avoid two extremes — Serve nation— Shake
off inferiority complex , cheap imitations — Secret of
world respect ; our past heroes — Past tradition — What
Mother wants.

O NCE, while I was conversing with a great Sadhu,, the
subject of frequent student-strikes came up. The
Sadhu remarked, “That is the bitter fruit of dinning into
the ears of the students by our leaders that they are the
pillars of the nation, the leaders of tomorrow aud so on.
This, coupled with their natural immaturity, has made
them swollen-headed. The right attitude to be inculcated
in the young minds is of selfless service, where ego has no
chance to raise its ugly head. Calling them ‘pillars’, ‘the
future leaders ’ and all that has only roused their ego which
makes them rise in revolt and indulge in strikes and violence
at the slightest touch of injustice or insult, imaginary or
otherwise.”

Listening to those wise words of the Sadhu, I remem-
bered an incident in the life of Sri Ramakrishna. Once
some of his disciples were talking about helping the poor,
showing compassion to them and so on. Sri Ramakrishna
came there in a God-intoxicated mood and admonished

381

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Bunch of Thoughts

them saying, “ Who are ,you to show compassion to them ?
Who are you to help them? They are the living manifes-
tations of Narayana himself. So you can only serve
them.”

Be a Foundation Stone

This attitude will generate in us the spirit of true self-
less service and take us a long way in giving purity, humility
and strength to our character and save us from swollen-
headedness which is the first step to degeneration. Let the
stone in the foundation be our ideal. It lies there unseen,
unadmired. It may not be beautiful, may not be polished;
but all the same it is the basis. If it moves or shakes, the
whole edifice crumbles down. More important than the
central dome, more important than anything else, is that
stone in the foundation. But with all that, the stone remains
there with self-oblivious service and self-effacement. That
should be the spirit in which we have to work among the
people. The desire to strut about in the limelight of name
and fame, to shine at the top only betrays one’s lack of
inner worth and weakness for self-adulation. After all,
what is great about sitting at the top ? Even a crow can sit
at the top of a dome !

True Service

The great men of our land have always upheld the spirit
of service as the highest expression of devotion to God.
One such great soul has prayed to Almighty — •

(I desire neither kingdom nor heaven nor salvation. All that
I desire is to remove the sorrows and miseries of all living
beings.)

That is the true Spirit of service. The constant prayer
of such a person is for greater strength and capacity to
serve. His fulfilment in life is that he has offered in

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383

service all that God has bestowed upon him. He says,
“Oh, God! I have emptied the jholi (bag) of my life at
Thy feet, and therein lies the fullness of my life.”

Swami Vivekananda used to say, “Be ready to bear
everything for the sake of the people like the great Guru
Govind Singh. After having shed his blood and the blood
of his nearest and dearest, he retired from the field calmly
to die in the South but not a word of curse escaped his
lips against those who had ungratefully forsaken him!”

Such is the true servant of society who seeks not any-
thing in return for himself but finds the joy of fulfilment
in having suffered and sacrificed for the good of society.

Even while wiping the tears of sorrow of others, the
feeling of elation or self-gratification does not enter such
minds. Such perversions enter when there is no real identi-
fication with the sufferings of others.

There was an annual function of a ‘Home for Destitute
Widows ’ in Bombay. The secretary while reporting the
progress of the institution expressed his gratification that
every year larger number of widows were filling that ‘ home.’
He ended with the hope that the institution would grow
on like that for ever! If he had been really distressed at
the woeful condition of those women, evidently he would
not have prayed for their ‘growing number’! The feelings
of a worker with the true spirit of service will be like those
of a son while serving his ailing mother. We are all children
of our society and whatever service we do should be imbued
with that pure and sublime spirit.

Symbols of Self-Reliance

The spirit of humility and service need not make us
lose our self-reliance and self-confidence. All our great
men have always been an embodiment of the blend of the
two virtues. In fact, the two qualities are like the two
faces of a coin.

Mahadev Govind Ranade, a scholar of great note in
Maharashtra, was a destitute in his early life. In his school

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Bunch of Thoughts

days he would go for Madhuhari (receiving food from a few
homes) which was then considered honourable. He would
sit in temples under an oil lamp and study. Ishwarchandra
Vidyasagar, one of our greatest educationists from Bengal,
was also very poor. It was monetarily hard enough for
him even to complete Matriculation. Then he took up a
job and out of his meagre earnings continued his college
studies. Self-reliance was the watchword that made these
stalwarts rise to such heights of scholarship.

Then we have the inspiring example of Swami Rama
Tirtha. He was born in an extremely poor family. He
was married early as was the custom in those days. After
his completing Matriculation his father wanted him to take
a job and maintain the family. But he had resolved to
continue his studies. A conflict ensued and his father asked
him to quit the house. Rama Tirtha made obeisance to
his father, asked his wife to follow and quit the house.
He was aged about fifteen years and his wife about eight years
at that time. She also braved the storm, having devoutly
listened in her childhood to the stories of Sita and Draupadi
and how they had followed their husbands to the forests.
Rama Tirtha found a small room and lodged his wife there.
He became a part-time tutor in a school and joined the
college. Further, he was a student bound by all the injunc-
tions enjoined on a brahmachari. He could not therefore
take food prepared by any woman other than his mother.
So he cooked food for himself and his wife. He began
teaching her also. In spite of all these privations, he was
always coming out in flying colours in all his examinations.
He took Sanskrit for M.A. Till then he had not the slightest
touch of Sanskrit. But he had steeled his will to pass and
he came out in first class. Such are the towering persona-
lities who rose to sublime heights of achievement on the
strength of their will and determination which carried them
through all obstacles and adversities.

Truly has it been said, “Self-help is the best help.” Once
a villager was driving his bullock cart to a neighbouring

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385

village. On the way the wheels got stuck up in the mud.
The man sat cursing his fate and praying to God to get him
out of the troubles. After some time, a person passing
that way saw him sitting with folded hands bewailing his
lot. He asked the villager to get up and put his shoulders
to the wheel along with him. The cart came out of the
mud in no time; then he went his way telling the villager,
ec God helps those who help themselves.”

Curse of ‘Careerism 5

But what do we see all around us today? Do we
find such self-effort and self-reliance in our youth? Take
a student for instance. He does not like to take the
trouble of writing notes every day at home. The study of
text-books also has become out of date. He goes in for
printed notes, questions and answers and tries to get them
by rote. And if he can dispense with that also, so much
the better. For that purpose, he moves about to see if he
can get at the examination questions beforehand and some-
times does not hesitate even to copy from others in the
examination hall. Or else, he takes some rounds of the
Hanuman shrine! But he never pauses to think that he
has to put in personal efforts to learn, to acquire knowledge.
Naturally, he remains the same dunce that he was even
after passing the examination.

Our educated young men hanker after easy jobs and
easier money. They are after cheap careers which are the
very antithesis of self-respect and self-reliance. The same
low mentality is the reason for hankering after Government
jobs. Guaranteed regular monthly income, little exertion,
very little responsibilty, and pension after retirement-
well, this line of least resistance appeals to many. They
hanker after this simplest of short-cuts to ease and comfort.
How despicable is this idle 4 career ’ for filling one’s belly !

Sometimes even good and well-meaning persons get
into that track and then bitterly complain of their help-
lessness to act up to their convictions in life on account of

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Bunch of Thoughts

having become Government employees. It is like a person
putting his neck into the noose and then crying out that
he is losing his life ! To sell one’s soul by becoming 4 your
most obedient servant’ as a short-cut to easy money is in
fact a short-cut to animality. There is joy in living by the
sweat of one’s brow even as a 4 hamal’. I know of an
M. Com. who pulls a ricksha. He prefers that life of hard
work and independence to one of idleness and servility.
He gets quite a handsome income too. One should bow
down to such a life of self-respct and self-reliance.

Let us not become 4 careerist’ hankering after easy
money, less effort and more comfort. Such unmanliness ill
behoves the educated young men of a land which has
produced a Rama Thirtha and a Vidyasagar. Let us there-
fore build our life on those inspiring models blending the
spirit of service with self-respect and humility with self-
confidence. All our latent virtues and energies will then
blossom into a beautiful and fragrant flower of heroic
manhood.

Tall Talking, Low Living

Now, how are we to manifest this spirit of selfless
service and other virtues in our actual life? What is that
inspiring object of worship and service? Is it ‘humanity’?
No doubt, we often hear persons speaking of ‘world
brotherhood ‘ service to humanity ’ and all that. But
when such people come into the grips of reality, all those
dreams vanish into thin air. I know of a gentleman, who
used to repeat the highest Advaitic saying Sarvam khalvidam
Brahma (verily God pervades all creation) but who would
draw back with revulsion at the sight of a Negro! Our
educated yeung men cannot even bear the atmosphere
of our own villages, what to speak of humanity ! Now
there is a cry, 44 Go back to villages.” But who listens
to that? When they see the stark naked humanity in
the villages, all their tall talk gets frozen. Once a young
man went for the work of village upliftment. He was

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387

accustomed to gingili oil but the people there were habituated
to linseed oil. He could not bear the smell of that oil. To
him it appeared as if that horrible smell pervaded the whole
atmosphere! He could not eat, he could not sleep. He
could not stay there even for a day and he came back.

Unless we are properly trained so as to suit the ideal
we cannot stand the test of hard reality. Once I came
across a young man who wanted to learn wrestling. But
when he was asked to take off his clothes, he exclaimed
4 ‘Taking off the clothes and wrestling! No! No! If
there is anything like wrestling with all my clothes on, then
only I can.” So I asked him to wrestle with mosquitoes !
That is what happens to those who speak of high ideals
like serving humanity. When they come face to face with
its severe demands in practice, they turn back and invariably
end in inactivity.

The Golden Mean

The other extreme swing of the pendulum to which
people go is the mentality of “I and my family, that is
all.” Once a leading advocate of a place told me, “If I
cannot think of humanity why should I not think of only
my family?” I replied, “Our national prosperity and
happiness were razed to dust when we thought of Brahma
satyarn jaganmithyd only. Similar fate overtook us when we
were immersed in our narrow personal and family life
alone. So, both these extremes —ativydpti and avycipti—
must be avoided and a middle path adopted. We get that
balance, that perfect poise of mind, when we take up
the golden mean between the two extremes in the form of
‘nation’.

Reactionary ‘Progressives’

Hence, the one ideal which can inspire us all to dedicate
ourselves is service to our nation. That will satisfy both
the aspects of a practical ideal— the sense of realism and the
sense of idealism.

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Bunch of Thoughts

It is well known that the spirit of service will be
generated only towards an object of our love, our pride
and adoration. The first and foremost training that we
must impart to our minds is, therefore, the inculcation of
the feelings of intense love, pride and adoration for our
national life in its manifold aspects— its religion, history*
heritage, philosophy of life, aspirations, points of faith and
honour etc.

But there are people calling themselves ‘progressives*
in our country today for whom all our ancient life-values
appear as reactionary and wicked. Their chief argument
against our values of life is its age. These neo-prophets
have neo-mania. For them all that is old is bad. Since
their nostrums are chronologically later arrivals, they assume
them to be more efficacious. It is like a doctor advising
the patient to die since chronologically death follows life I
Must we substitute tube-light for the sun because the sun
is old, indeed very old, and tube-light a recent device to
dispel darkness?

To condemn things as useless and retrograde simply
because they are old would amount to accepting the worst
type of slavery — the slaves of the intellect. And yet these
intellectual slaves are pleased to appoint themselves as the
‘progressives’ of this age. This is a sign of weakness of
the mind, the absence of intellectual strength to think freely
and positively, fully and fearlessly.

Mental Slavery

The second factor which has added to this weakness
of mind is the sense of inferiority complex that we suffer
in relation to the Westerners. This is an evil legacy of
the days of English rule here. During the last one century
or more many personalities arose in this land who strove
to shake off the foreign yoke. But most of them had
themselves become mental slaves to the English. A sense
of defeatism, a sense of inferiority complex ruled their
minds. How did this happen? The reason is simple and

Be Men with Capital fi M’

389

lies in the common human weakness of associating good
qualities with wealth and power. A famous saying in
Sanskrit —

fef ST TT. JS5R:

*T TfecT: ?T il

describes how the human mind naturally attributes all vir-
tues, learning, wisdom and great lineage to the possessor
of riches and power. When the tide of war turned in
favour of the English and for a time it seemed as though
we were finally overthrown, there came a period of lull
and diffidence, resulting in the fostering of the idea that
the victors, superior in their military prowess and scheming
skill and possessed of a brave show of physical prosperity,
must also needs be superior in all kinds of knowledge.
That is why our people at the beginning of the British
rule started aping the manners and customs of the English
and voicing opinions borrowed from the West with an air
of conviction. Every European ideal, however absurd,
was gospel truth; everything ours, by contrast, was natu-
rally false and foolish. Especially those learned in the
Western lore, the ‘educated’ class, became in truth
4 black-skinned Englishmen.’

No wonder that such ‘educated’ men found no diffi-
culty in gulping down the extraordinary absurdity cleverly
propagated by the foreigner that at the root of our defeat
and degeneration lay our way of life. So they began to
rebuild our national life with contempt for our own culture
and infatuation for the foreign ideals. The Britisher too
cleverly managed to bring up such soft-pedalling leader-
ship in the country. Foreign rulers have always followed
that policy of playing down the genuine elements of
patriotism and bringing up a compromising group in order
to tone down the fury of freedom struggle in enslaved
countries.

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Bunch of Thoughts

Animality Supplants Divinity

This attitude of base imitation had a disastrous effect
upon our national life. It changed our very life-attitudes.
As we know, imitation implies a complete absence of one’s
inherent genius and originality in the outlook of life.
Firstly, it resulted in our forsaking the noble ideals of
self-sacrifice and self-restraint in a mad rush to embrace
the Western life-pattern of enjoyment and satiation of
pleasures of the flesh. Western life is, after all, extrovert.
Earthly enjoyment is its highest ideal. Their concept of
individual freedom lies in allowing the senses full licence to
have an unbridled sway over the mind, thereby making a
slave of oneself to the brute-instinct. We also, in our
wild-goose chase of the white man’s ideals, echoed his
slogan of ‘raising the standard of life’, which simply
means increasing our slavery to material things in life or,
in other words, an increasing slavery of man to the brute.
It is this glorification of animality that has resulted today
in all-round selfishness and jealousy. The youth of to-
day is getting infatuated with but one dream in life— of
maximum pleasures and enjoyment.

Procrustean Bed of Politics

Secondly, having lost the cultural essence of our
national existence, we fell a prey to the superficial view of
looking upon politics as the pivot of life. In line with this
perverted view, our people were advised to become ‘politi-
cally conscious.’ This has gone to the extent of even saying
that all our life-values must be recast in the light of the
requirements of politics ! In fact, life was equated with
politics and accordingly our dharma , our language and
even our history were altered to suit the fleeting whims of
political exigencies. After all politics is described as—

— changing its hue and shade every now and then. It is
only an arrangement, a means to serve social life. But

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391

external arrangement is not all, is not life. However, in our
case the ‘means’ was mistaken for the ‘end’. Man wears
clothes according to the needs of his body. He does not cut
down his body according to the size of the clothes !

There is a story of a robber by name Procrustes who
used to invite an unwary guest to his forest-house and
ask him to rest on a cot. If the guest was longer than the
cot, the robber used to chop off his extra length, and if
shorter, he was enlongated forcibly ! That was the novel
technique the robber employed to murder persons. And
so are our leaders hammering and straining the body of
our nation to adjust it to the bed of politics with the
inevitable result that our age-old social life has fallen into
a perilous plight.

It is well known that each family has its own deity.
Some worship Rama, some Bhavani and some others Shankara
as their Chosen Deity. If in its place, some evil spirit
or a fallen soul is installed nothing short of total perdition
awaits such a family. That is what we are witnessing today
in our country. Our Chosen Deity of ancient spiritual and
cultural heritage is now dethroned from our hearts and
installed in its place is the Western spirit of materialism
and politics.

‘Swa 5 in Swatantrya

Today we find everywhere attempts to recast our life-
pattern in the mould of an American, English or Russian
way of life. How can we call it swatantrata (freedom) which
has no swa (our genius) in it? Then it is only para-tantrata.
If Lenin is kept as the ideal it becomes ‘ Lenin-tan tra 9 and
not swa-tantra! In fact, protection and propagation of our
national life-values i. e., our dJiarma and samshriti , have
always been held in our historical tradition as the raison
d’etre of swatantrata .

A wheel, in order to rotate, must have its pivot inside.
If that pivot is outside the wheel, it cannot rotate. A
circle with the centre outside cannot exist. Similarly if the

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life-centre of Bharatiya life is kept outside Bharat, it cannot
survive. If anybody cherishes extra-territorial loyalties, we
call him a traitor. Would it not then be a greater
disloyalty to our country if a person derives inspiration
from extra-territorial ideals?

Some people ask us. “What is your ‘ism’?” It is clear
from the question that the questioners are slaves of the
European way of thinking and that they have strait-
jacketed theselves in European ‘isms’. They cannot

even conceive that we too have a thought-pattern, a solid
substratum of our own on which we can build an ideal
national life.

We have to shake ourselves free from these shackles
of inferiority complex and imitation. It does not mean
that we should not take what is good in other countries.
But we should assimilate those things and make them the
flesh and blood of our own body. But now we are taking
all these foreign things at the cost of our own vitality. Our
fate will be like that of a person unable to digest the food
thrust into his belly, and sinking under its load.

This mental subservience to the foreigner will ruin all
our natural virtues and make us a laughing stock in the
eyes of the world. There is that notorious incident of one
of our ambassadors who, while talking to the Pope, said that
the world would no more be poorer even if all the copies of
Bhagavad-Gita were consigned to the fire, so long as a single
copy of the Sermon on the Mount remained with mankind!
Another ambassador, another chip off the same ‘progressive”
block, selected a cheap cinema love-song to be presented
as one of our national songs to the country to which he
was accredited ! Fortunately for our country, the patriotic
instinct of one of his subordinate staff averted the national
humiliation.

Body without a Soul

A gentleman from the West once remarked, “When I
came to Delhi I felt that I was not in India at all. It is

Be Men with Capital ‘M’

393 -

just a cheap imitation of London or New York. If this-
continues, I feel your country has no future. It can only
be a satellite, a slave of some other country.*’ How strange*
an Englishman comes to us, we talk in English ; we go to
London and there also we talk in English ! And we prides
ourselves on being ‘internationalists’. This is nothing but
utter lack of national self-respect, abject slavery of the
mind. When Srimati Vijayalakshmi Pandit was sent as-
Ambassador to Russia she presented her credentials in
English but it was rejected as it was not in our national
language. Then the Hindi copy was presented. It was
again sent back as there was a mistake in the Hindl-
rendering. What a disgrace!

There are some eminent personalities in our country*,
who write and speak highly of our culture and philosophy
and proclaim that we can lead the world on that basis.
But ironically enough it is they who clamour for the retention
of English, for the adoption of all foreign systems and
customs.

In the days of our fighting with the British, foreign
clothes were burnt and foreign goods were boycotted. But
today after the British have left we have not only retained
their language, dress etc., but we are using many times
more of foreign goods than we did ten years ago! One can
understand the sheer necessity of importing certain essential
commodities not producible here, like certain military
equipment for our armies, some medicines etc. But what
is this nonsense of wasting crores of rupees on playing-cards,
lipstick and such other worthless articles? The costly game
of cricket, which has not only become a fashion in our
country but something over which we are spending crores-
of rupees, only proves that the English are still dominating
our mind and intellect. The cricket match that Pandit
Nehru and other M.P.s played some years back was the
very depth of this Anglicism. Why could they not play
Kabaddi, our national game, which has been acclaimed by
several countries as a great game ?

394

Bunch of Thoughts

How strange that we have picked up only the vulgar
^exterior of the Western civilization and ignored the spirit
of national pride and patriotism that animates everyone of
the activities of those people whether in affluence or in
adversity! A few decades back England was faced with an
■economic crisis in spite of all-round plenty and prosperity.
All the leaders of England put their heads together to face
that challenge. For that purpose they decided to revive
the spirit of swadeshi . They arranged exhibitions and
geared up their propaganda machinery. The King also was
in the forefront of that movement. The King and other
leaders of society set an example by themselves scrupu-
lously taking to swadeshi goods. And thus they were able
to ward off the economic disaster that was looming large
over their nation. We, in our inafatuation for the show and
pomp of Western life, have sacrificed the spirit of swadeshi
-and are inviting decay and disaster in every field of our
national life.

This corrosion of our national soul has not spared even
the most hallowed aspects of our life. For us marriage is a
dharmic ceremony. But even there during the sacramental
rituals, and not only at the time of reception, the bridegroom
is often dressed as an Englishman from top to toe in boots,
tie and so on. One is shocked to see such aping of a
foreigner even in a religious ceremony! The same dismal
humiliating picture stares us in the face wherever we go.
There can be no future for a nation which does violence to
itself by losing faith in its own way of life.

Our forefathers were great and commanded the respect
of the world because they were conscious of their great
national ideals and their national self-respect. They would
address the world in a tone of quiet confidence born out
of the consciousness of their intrinsic greatness. The very
term Ary a which they applied to themselves conveyed culture
.and character. They had proudly declared :

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395

^ ^T^nTT^:

(The Arya shall never be a slave.) They announced:

^TT ^ r r ^r^ : i

^ trtTFTTT: i !

(Let men all over the world learn their lessons in life sitting -
at the feet of the first born of this land.)

Even today such an intense love and pride in our own
national life and ideals alone can project the true and
glowing image of our country before the world. This flame
of pure patriotism must be lit in the heart of every son of
this soil. The warmth and effulgence of such hearts shall
dispel the darkness of intellectual inbecility enveloping our
country today.

With this firm conviction let us press forward in the
path of national rejuvenation. Let us not be carried away
by the clever and often mischievous arguments that corrode
the people’s faith and devotion to nation. Once a leading-
figure of our country wrote in an article that the R.S.S^
people were ‘fanatically patriotic’ ! We do not know what
made him say like that. But so far as we are concerned,
we feel that there are no gradations in desha-bhakti, i.e. s
patriotism. Bhakti is self-surrendering, is dedicating one-
self completely and unreservedly without any thought of"
the self. Real devotion can never be half way. But it
seems some people cannot bear this full-blooded spirit of"
patriotism. It may be too hot for them. Probably they
require gradations in patriotism— warm, lukewarm and cold!
Those who dare to drink to the full the cup of devotion
need not be afraid or misled by such words as ‘fanatical’.-
Let us challengingly say, “Yes, we are building that intense-
white heat of patriotism.”

Springs of National Glory

In fact, such have been the qualities of the great-
builders of our society since hoary times. It is always the

396

Bunch of Thoughts

selfless, self-confident and devoted band of missionaries,
intensely proud of their national ethos, who have roused the
sleeping manliness in our nation in times of adversity and
made our nation rise gloriously from a heap of ruins.
Verily such men have been the true salt of this soil. Even
in ancient times, the educated and intelligent young men
came forward in an unbroken succession to serve and
elevate society giving up all thought of personal comforts
and enjoyments. They were the very embodiment of the
spirit of selfless service, sacrifice and character. They would
live on roots or collect a morsel going from door to door
.and somehow carry on their physical existence. And all
their energies were bent to the single purpose of bringing
about the welfare of the common people. They would mix
with them, share in their joys and sorrows, try to alleviate
their physical wants and miseries and infuse in them the
higher values of life. They— the young, the intelligent, the
-self-sacrificing hearts— were the pinnacles from which the
■streams of cultural and spiritual values flowed and
permeated all levels of our society. They formed the
perennial springs that made both these streams, i.e., of
■cultural sublimity and physical prosperity, flow to the brim
in national life and made our nation a light-house of material
and spiritual glory.

Mother Wants

Let us relive those great ideals. Let us shake off all the
present-day emasculating notions and become real living
men, bubbling with national pride, living and breathing
the grand ideas of service, self-reliance and dedication in
the cause of our dear and sacred motherland. Only such
a band of young men fired with a missionary zeal can rouse
our people to action and ward off the grave perils threatening
our country from inside and outside.

Let us feel ourselves fortunate to have been born in
the present trying situation. Some may deem it a stroke
of rare good luck to come into the world in a nation of

Be Men with Capital £ M’

397

peace and plenty, of power and glory. There are so many
in our country today who feel in that manner and go away
to America, England etc., lured by the luxuries there. But
men with a ring of real heroism think otherwise and thank
God that during their sojourn here they are faced with
hardships, scarcity, adversity and trouble, through which
they have to struggle on to prosperity. In times of affluence,
our life will probably mean nothing more than 4 to be bom,
to live happily for some time and die one day.’ But in
adverse circumstances we get an opportunity to put forth
the best in us, to test our manliness and to stand before
the world as a colossal personality full of grandeur. We
are offered the chance to rise to our full stature, to soar to-
heights beyond the highest flights of human imagination.

Today, more than anything else. Mother needs such
men— young, intelligent, dedicated and more than all virile-
and masculine. When Narayana— eternal knowledge— and
Nara— eternal manliness— combine, victory is ensured. And
such are the men who make history — the men with capital
4 M

xxn

Men with Mission

Real greatness, making men out of dust — Genuine spirit
of identity — Assert faith in goodness — Building com-
radeship — Be self-confident , beware of self-conceit—
Lesson of great lives — Egoless is success — One life ,
one mission— Self-introspection, self -reformation— The
joy of idealism — The glory of suffering — ‘ Excelsior *.

T HE mission of national reorganisation— i.e., of uniting
in a common abiding brotherhood all our brethren
torn asunder at present for various reasons and making
them capable of doing national service by giving each one
of them suitable work in the organisation — is a tremendously
complex task involving the interplay of countless types
of human natures and will therefore defy codification or
framing of flat rules of behaviour for its workers. Each
man has an individuality of his own and requires a distinct
approach. So we shall here focus our attention only on
the main guidelines of behaviour for a worker devoted to that
national mission.

Tall but Useless

When persons begin to work as missionaries of national
reconstruction, the chief impediment that comes up at
every step is the absence of national consciousness and the
spirit of organised life among our people. Therefore, they

398

Men with Mission

399

are tempted to pass judgment on others and look upon
them as being low in comparison to themselves. This-
often gives rise to a sense of self-glorification and self-
conceit. This is the first pitfall that a national worker has-
to avoid. If he starts with the presumption that all
others are worthless, how can he work among the people-
and win their loving co-operation?

What is the use of being so ‘tali’ as will not allow
one to mix with one’s own people in a spirit of affection.
and comradeship? Saint Kabir has said:

3^rr *RT eft TTT W dTS J

qfispFT 3Tt ^TT ^ 31% II

( Of what use are such great men who are like the tall palm and'
khajur trees that neither give shade nor allow a tired '
traveller to reach their fruits ? ) Comparatively even small
trees capable of giving a little shade and a few fruits will
be of use to him.

So even if a worker has certain great qualities let
him come down from his ‘heights’ to the level of the
average man and share his greatness with the rest of
his brethren in society. Let him become one with others
without making others feel that he is something extra-
ordinary. Even a remote shadow of separateness arising
out of the consciousness of one’s capacity and sacrifices
should not be allowed to fall between oneself and the
people. After all, the various virtues that a worker strives
to cultivate in himself are for offering them at the feet
of society. That is the essence of real greatness.

Making Men out of Dust

That is how all our great epoch-makers had forged
the scattered forces of our people into an invincible
national strength. Shivaji mixed with the poor unlettered
tillers of the soil with love and fellowship, reared them.
in a climate of idealism and turned them into conquer-
ing national heroes. He approached even those who were

400

Bunch of Thoughts

wallowing in slavery under the Muslim overlords and
won them over to the cause of swadesh and swadharma.
The peerless warrior Morarbaji Deshpande was one such
priceless jewel that he snatched from the enemy. He
reconverted to our faith many who had succumbed to
the lures of Muslim women and the temptations and
tyranny of Muslim powers. One of his generals, Netaji
Balkar, who was captured and converted to Islam by
Aurangzeb, later on escaped and came back to Shivaji.
'Shivaji took him back to the Hindu fold and lest others
should shirk to mix with him he established blood relations
with him by giving one of the members of his own family
in marriage to him. What a supreme vision he had of
national consolidation !

In ancient times there is a parallel instance in the
life of Sri Krishna. After Sri Krishna had rid the world of
the menace of Narakasura and released the thousands of
women abducted by him, a serious problem confronted
the leaders of society. Then Sri Krishna, who was
universally accepted as the supreme lawgiver because of his
incomparable virtues of head and heart, himself came
forward to give them an honourable status in society by
formally declaring them all as his dhdrmic wives ! In
fact the highest dharma of a society is to find a place
of dignity and usefulness for every one of its members
howsoever low he may be. Poet Moropant has told :

qfc snrf^ u

*ftt ?r srTcrit it

(The great ones Iceep all things with them , not discarding anything
* as worthless.)

The Prerequisite

It is true that all are not alike in virtues and weak-
nesses. All the same, they have to be brought together in
a harmonious well-knit organisation wherein each will be
inspired to offer his best to build a common pool of

Men with Mission

401

strength and virtues. To achieve that, a spirit of total
identification with society is the first requisite for a national
worker.

A Sadhu was once sitting with a dog in his arms
lovingly sharing with it the leavings of food thrown on the
roadside. A passer-by recognised in him a realised soul and
went near him. But on seeing him, the Sadhu began to
run and hurl stones in a bid to dissuade him from
following. But seeing him pursuing undeterred, the Sadhu
halted and asked him, “Why are you coming after me?”
The man replied, “ Sir, I know you have realised God.
Please initiate me also into that path.” The Sadhu told,
* c Well, do you see the gutter waters of the town flowing
here ? When you come to realise that this is in no way
different from the waters of Ganga, you will have become
competent to realise God.” The work of social consolidation
which is truly the realisation of Nation-God can be carried
on only on the basis of such a spirit of identity as will
render us capable of seeing a beggar on the street and a great
scholar with an equal eye of love and brotherhood.

Avoid Pretensions

There is an important point that a national missionary
has to bear constantly in mind in this connection. The be-
haviour of intimacy and affection with one and all should
be devoid of all traces of affectations and pretensions. Nor
should there be any room for fake feelings of compassion.
An organisation cannot thrive on merely polished but
empty mannerisms. The worker’s feelings of fraternity
must be natural and spontaneous. He must be able to
look upon the entire society as a living manifestation of
divinity and see in each individual the same spark of
divinity irrespective of his external appearance. Our
culture has always prompted us to acquire this eye of
equality bom out of the realisation of the inner unity.

Once, the boy-sage Ashtavakra (deformity incarnate!)
entered the assembly of scholars in the court of the

402

Bunch of Thoughts

renowned philosopher-king Janaka. The assembled scholars
could not suppress their laughter at the sight of the ugly
form of the newcomer. The boy calmly remarked, “I
came here taking this to be an assembly of philosophers.
But now I find that I have come to a wrong place as there
are only cobblers and butchers here.” The venerable
assembly was naturally shocked beyond all words. Janaka
asked the boy to explain his statement. The boy-sage
replied, “ These gentlemen have identified me with my
bones, my flesh and skin. It is the butcher who deals
in bones and flesh and the cobbler in skin. A real philoso-
pher recognises the Spirit in man which is the same in
all beings.”

The Golden Blend

No one, however virtuous and great, should forget
that others too possess some sparks of virtues. It is pre-
sumptuous to imagine that the Almighty has handed over
the lamp of knowledge only to a few and kept all others
in darkness. Even our ancient rishis who proudly called
themselves Aryas and had resolved to Aryanise the whole
of humanity declared that others, the Mlechhas , too were
capable of nobility and greatness. Our ancestors had the
unique quality of owning others without compromising their
self-respect. The work of national reorganisation has to be
carried on in the same spirit, i. e., of rejecting none and
respecting all.

The first conviction with which a national worker
should start is that all people are, or can be made, virtuous
and good and capable of sharing responsibility and that
none of them is intrinsically a fool or a traitor. Sometimes
he may have to criticise some individuals for their thoughts
and actions which go against the national well-being. But
even while doing so he must give due respect to their
person and admit their good points.

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403

Assert Faith in Goodness

In fact, recognising the good in others is one of the
best and rarest of human virtues* The guiding principle for
a worker should be to water the seeds of virtues in others
and carefully weed out their vices and defects without
parading them before all and by presenting before them
the silent example of his own superior conduct. The advice
of many worldly-wise men is to deal with people accord-
ing to their worth purely in a 6 business-like 5 spirit. But
for a missionary devoted to organising the whole people,
that would be the very antithesis of the attitude required
of him. Even in spite of repeated rebuffs and insults at the
hands of his brethren he will have to go to their doors
again and again in the same spirit of love and service.

Once a Sadhu while bathing in a river saw a scorpion
being carried away by the current. He at once stretched
his hand to rescue it. But stung by it he let it go. He
again caught hold of it and tried to throw it on the bank.
He was again stung. He repeated his attempts, got himself
stung every time and finally threw the scorpion outside the
water. The persons witnessing that amazing sight remar-
ked what a fool he was to have attempted to save the
scorpion again and again knowing its nature only too well.
The sadhu calmly replied. “ Well, when even such a small
dull creature does not give up its natural qualities, then
should I, an intelligent human being, give up mine?”

Building Unshakable Comradeship

After all, in the case of our brethren in society, the
question of their inborn hostility does not arise. Whatever
indifference or opposition that a worker may experience
from others is often born out of their ignorance and is
bound to be short-lived. So he should approach every
individual, whatever be his present aptitude and position
in life, in a spirit of friendliness and equality and with
faith in his innate goodness. Also he must be confident
of triumphing over the various weaknesses, vices and

404

Bunch of Thoughts

temperamental differences of others on the strength of his
genuine love and regard for them and the example of his
own sterling character.

Good character alone is not enough. There are per-
sons endowed with pure character but who are rude and
offensive in their speech and behaviour. They even pride
themselves on their rudeness. They say, “I call a spade
a spade. If it offends anyone I care two hoots.” But a
worker who is devoted to national reorganisation cannot
afford to be so. Sweetness of speech is a ‘must’ for a
national worker. There is the story of a king who used to
consult astrologers about his life-span. All the astrologers
told him that he would live very long but his son would die
before his very eyes. That shocking news would naturally
infuriate him and he would punish those astrologers.
Finally, an old astrologer approached him and said that
he was a very fortunate man and would install his grand-
son on his throne with his own hands. Immensely pleased,
the king rewarded the astrologer handsomely ! Instead of
uttering the bitter prophecy like others, he said the same
thing differently in a sweet manner. And that made all
the difference. So it has been said, Satyam brooydt priyam
brooyat (Speak truly, speak sweetly).

It is only when the worker blends strength of character
with sweetness of speech and behaviour in himself that he
will be able to make all others come together in a spirit
of comradeship and stand up along with him under all trials
and tribulations.

There is an instance of Chandrashekhar Azad, a name
that has become a legend for character, courage and spirit
of revolution. He was being hunted after by the entire
might of the British intelligence force. Once, when he
was residing secretly with his friend who was a Government
servant, the police besieged the house on suspicion. The
friend tried to convince the police officers in loud tones of
protest that he knew nothing about Chandrashekhar
Azad. The friend’s wife who was inside heard the voice.

Men with Mission

405

Chandrashekhar too was inside playing merrily with the
children. It was the day of Sanhrdnti. The lady made up
her mind in an instant. She thundered in a tone of indigna-
tion, “You idiot of a servant, it is already late and you are
idling your time with the children ! Get up, take the basket,
we have to distibute sweets to our neighbours !” In an
instant Chandrashekhar got himself up as a servant and
with a basket on his head followed her out of the house before
the very eyes of the police officers. Neither the basket
nor Chandrashekhar returned after the ‘distribution of
sweets’ ! The person who would play and make merry as
one among the children of the house, had at the same time
converted that house into a veritable citadel of loyalty,
courage and sagacity in the cause of the nation. That
should be our method, that should be our ideal wherever
we live and move.

The One Enemy of All Virtues

As the work progresses and gains in prestige and
influence people naturally begin to praise the workers. And
therein lies the danger spot for a worker. He begins to feel
conscious, of his capacity and influence and a sort of vanity
develops in him. The repulsive odour of his ego will then
begin to stink in the nostrils of those who come near him.
They will try to keep themselves at a respectable distance
from him. Saint Jnaneshwar has beautifully described the
strange nature of ego :

3r^5pRI% ETSt I ^ TT5t I

STT^fN fa ’TT 3Fk5T I Trfecflf ii

(Strange are the ways of ego. It does not touch the ignorant ,
but clutches the learned by the throat and lands them in grave
danger.) He should therefore be extremely circumspect
and not fall a prey to the deceptive tactics of ego. Vanity
is the greatest enemy of all virtues. Temptations flow from
vanity.

In our ancient literature there is the story of Jaimini,

406

Bunch of Thoughts

a disciple of the great sage Vyasa. Yyasa once asked him
to write the shloha —

f^Rurfq- i

(The pull of senses will distract even the scholars). But Jaimini,.
overconscious of his powers of self-restraint, changed
the words into.

(The pull af senses will not distract the scholars). Yyasa
observed it but kept quiet for the time being. Jaimini was
residing in a forest engaged in penance. One evening rain
and tempest set in. A young and beautiful woman drenched
in the rain and seeking shelter in that darkness came
to the hut and begged the young tapasvi for protection.
There was fire in the oven; she went there and began to
dry her clothes. Just then a gust of wind took away her
sari leaving her naked. The young Jaimini could no
longer control himself. He approached the woman and
entreated her to satisfy his carnal desire. She tried to
dissuade him saying that he was a tapasvi , that he should
not fall into temptation and so on but to no avail.
Finally she accepted to fulfil his desire on the condition
that he should take her on his shoulders and go round the
fire three times. In his infatuation he readily agreed to it
and lifted her on his shoulders. As soon as he began to go
round the fire she began hitting his head and asking
tauntingly — fasfhET ?TPT 5 f><ffa'? He was amazed to find that
woman reminding him of the words of his guru. He finished
his rounds and got down only to find to his utter bewil-
derment his guru Vedavyasa himself looking at him with
a meaningful smile ! Jaimini was plunged in repentance.
He hurried back and changed the shloha to its original form.

Be Self-Confident, Beware of Self-Conceit

All our great men have invariably commanded every-
one, however good and virtuous he may be, to be humble

Men with Mission

407

and prudent in all his behaviour. It does not, however,
mean that a worker should lose his self-confidence while
moving with men or facing difficult situations. Self-
confidence is in fact the very life-breath of all great
workers.

It is the calm and steady and self-confident men that
can move mountains. The picture of Winston Churchill,
the old lion of England, standing erect on a heap of mins
in London, a city rained with bombs during the Second
World War, and telling his countrymen that he had come
there not to weep but with the promise of blood, sweat,
toil and tears— and victory !— gives us an idea of the powers
of an unruffled and confident mind.

There is a beautiful story in Jain literature. Once Sri
Krishna, Balarama and Satyaki were lost in a forest. They
decided to spend the night beneath a tree, each keeping
guard over the others for two hours. To start with,

Satyaki kept awake and the other two slept. But shortly,

a Brahmarakshasa (an evil spirit) jumped down from the
tree and threatened Satyaki that he would eat up all the
three persons. Satyaki got furious and began to fight with
the Rakshasa. But to his bewilderment he found the

Rakshasa growing in stature and strength. Satyaki was
exasperated. After two hours, thoroughly exhausted, he
awoke Balarama and went to sleep. As soon as Satyaki
retired, the Rakshasa too disappeared for a while but again
appeared when Balarama got up. Balarama, conscious of
his tremendous strength, became wild with anger and
began to combat. But he too met with the same fate.

After fighting in vain for two hours he awoke Sree Krishna
and went to sleep. The Rakshasa confronted Sri Krishna.
But Sri Krishna kept calm. He was confident of his own
overwhelming powers and knew how to deal with the
demon. He started joking and playing and hitting the
Rakshasa. And what a surprise ! As Sri Krishna conti-
nued in this strain the Rakshasa began to diminish in size.
Ultimately Sri Krishna caught hold of him and tied him

408

Bunch of Thoughts

in a corner of his garment. When Balarama and Satyaki
woke up in the morning they were surprised to find Sri
Krishna restful and tranquil as if nothing had happened.
Their surprise turned into utter amazement when they
found the dreaded Brahma rakshasa tied as a small worm in
a comer of Sri Krishna's garment !

The tranquillity of mind born out of supreme
confidence in one’s own strength is verily an inexhaustible
dynamo of power. Anger and excitement ruin the power
of calm judgment and firm action.

However, a worker should not become a victim of
self-conceit in the name of self-confidence nor should he
lose self-confidence in an attempt to become unassuming
and humble. That correct poise of mind should be
cultivated assiduously.

A look at the great characters in our past history will
be an inspiring aid to develop that mental equanimity.
How small and insignificant we appear before those towering
personalities who had reached the very pinnacles of selflessness,
steadfastness and manliness ! What is there in us to boast of
in comparison with those giants of thought and action?
We have not even acquired a drop of the ocean of
knowledge that Shankaracharya had mastered in a short
life-span of thirty two years. Even as a young boy,
he embraced the hard life of renunciation and walked
the four distant corners of the land with the message of
national resurrection. Single-handed, he moved earth and
heaven and once again roused the people to the true
consciousness of our traditional values of life. The constant
remembering of such radiant lives illumines our hearts
with a ray of its effulgence, inspires us to proceed in
their footsteps with self-confidence and at the same time
with self-effacement.

‘Egoless’ is Success

If there is even a trace of ego and vanity a worker
will not be able to merge his life in the joys and sorrows of

Men with Mission

409

his people in a true spirit of amity and identity. The test
of true friendship is the ability to remain unoffended in
face of adverse comments. Even if a person says or does
something which in the eyes of others appears to harm or
insult him and still he does not in the least feel its prick,
then alone can he claim true friendship with that person.

There is a small poem which gives out this idea
beautifully. A young man and a young girl were in
deep love with each other. But the parents of that girl
would not allow her to marry him. So once they meet in
a far off place in solitude and the young man says in the
poem, “ I throttled and killed her ; and she felt no pain ! ”
It only means that when there is real love, there can be
no pain or offence taken or given. If there is a feeling of
having been offended, it means we have not really effaced
the ego. This is the acid test we have to apply to ourselves
on every such occasion.

It is only when the worker surrenders his ego completely
and unreservedly at the altar of the great mission he has
chosen, that he will be able to make himself its fit instru-
ment. Only a. good and well-tuned musical instrument
can give rise to melodious notes in the hand of an expert.
So also, when the worker rounds off all the angularities
of his egoistic nature, a pure and inspiring note of self-
confidence and missionary zeal will be vibrant in all his talk
and behaviour.

There are some who say that the natural tendencies
in man cannot be changed, that they are like the tail of a
dog which curls up every time we try to straighten it up.
But that is only a half-truth, applicable to men without a
mission in life. But for a man with a mission, the
message of—

^ t Tirm stpt

(Man by his efforts can become God) holds equally good.
Remember, “ Every saint has a past and every sinner a
future/’ The attitude of “I am a no-changer; take me
15

410

Bunch of Thoughts

as I am”, will be of little use in building an organised life
of the people. That is like a foot-rug with the letters
‘Use Me’. Should there not be any difference between
living men of dedication and a lifeless object? By regular
contemplation and introspection the worker should imbibe
all the necessary qualities and fashion his life for the
successful working out of the chosen ideal.

One Life, One Mission

Through introspection the worker will be able to discern
correctly to what extent he has progressed in identifying
himself with the ideal of an organised national life, whether
the ideal has become the one all-consuming passion of his
life moving and swaying his thoughts, feelings and actions
in company or in solitude. The true character of a person
lies in what he thinks and does when he is alone. Especially
today when young minds are surrounded by innumerable
temptations of modern civilisation like all sorts of vulgar
pictures, songs, cinemas, novels and entertainments, the
chances of his getting unconsciously permeated with those
images are very high. Thousand and one distractions
pull him in diverse directions and if he is not on his
guard his mind will be tossed about like a rudderless ship
on a stormy sea. Such an unsteady mind spells ruin to the
individual. It is said:

srarctsfq- -flws: i

{Even the solicitude of an unsteady mind is dangerous) . Then
what to say of such a mind when it gets into a rage! The
need for stringent self-introspection therefore becomes all
the more necessary for a worker desirous of leading the life
of a dedicated missionary in the present atmosphere of all-
round distraction and dissipation.

By constant and conscious application of his will a
worker can attain the state of complete concentration on
his chosen path of national resurgence in spite of all the
worldly distractions. For, the forces of purity and divinity

Men with Mission

411

are far more potent than the evil pulls and always stand
by such a worker spreading their angelic wings over
each one of his humblest and honest efforts and take
him from strength to strength. Then the only joy and
solace of his life will be in the fulfilment of that ideal.
All other external attractions will become insipid before
that joy.

Once Lokamanya Tilak was taken to the music
performance of a famous songster. The vast audience was
thrilled and moved by the music but Tilak sat unmoved,
impassive. The songster observed it and later on asked
Tilak whether the music was not to his taste. Tilak
replied, “No doubt, you sing extremely well. But my ears
are completely filled with the divine music of the Song of
the Lord, Bhagavad-Gita , and hence I was unable to enjoy
your music.”

The Joy of Self-Surrender

The springs of spontaneous joy and inspiration that
rise in a heart charged with such a spirit of total surrender
to the ideal will defeat all forces of darkness and despair.
There is a story of two yogis who were doing intense pe-
nance for realising God. Narard, who was on his way to
the abode of God, was requested by these two yogis to know
from Him for how many more births they had to carry on
their penance to realise Him. Narada on his way back
again met the two yogis. To the first he said, “Only four
more births.” Hearing that reply that yogi became crest-
fallen and began wailing, “Oh, Lord, still four more births ! ”
To the other, Narada said, “You have to wait till you take
as many births as there are leaves in the yonder tamarind
tree.” But Narada was amazed to see him start dancing
with joy. When Narada asked him the reason, he replied?
“ Now I have got only a definite number of births before
I reach God. After that I am assured of meeting God.
What a great solace it is ! ” And just as he said it a divine
voice was heard. “ You are even at this moment a realised

412

Bunch of Thoughts

soul!” Such a spirit of life-long perseverance, absolute
faith and unshakable will alone can achieve miracles.

Excelsior !

No great work is achieved without great suffering and
sacrifice. The worker will be required to pay a heavy price
in terms of his personal and family happiness and smilingly
embrace a life of troubles and dangers in treading the path
of an ideal. The glowing example of Sri Rama is there as
the guiding star for the hazardous voyage of a life of duty.
Even as a boy he was taken away from his parents by
Vishwamitra, from a princely life to a forest life, to fight
the rakshasas. Later, after he won the hand of Sita and
was returning to Ayodhya he had to face the terrible
Parashurarna. And then before he could heave a sigh of
relief and taste happiness, he had to leave for a fourteen
year wilderness in forest. Those fourteen years too were
full of ordeals and struggles with rdJcshasas, abduction of
Sita by Ravana and the great war at Lanka. As he returned
to Ayodhya and was anointed as the king he had to give
up Sita in response to the call of kingly duties. Lakshmana,
who had followed him like a shadow in all these tribula-
tions and was like the very breath and soul of Rama, too
had to be given up to assuage the wrath of Durvasa who
would have otherwise destroyed Ayodhya. Verily his was
a life unparalleled by all standards of character and calibre
and unparalleled in suffering and sacrifice too.

There is a small poem which tells the story of a young
man who goes out in rains and tempest on a mountainous
path with a banner held aloft in his hand bearing the in-
signia ‘Excelsior’. In that darkness, after a time, he sees
a small hut with a light burning inside. As he nears it,
an old lady comes out of the hut and stops him saying,
“Where are you going, my boy, in this rain and tempest?
I have no son of my own. Please stay here as my child
enjoying all this property.” But the young man has no
mind to listen to her. By then her charming daughter

Men with Mission

413

comes out and addresses that handsome and robust young
man in her bewitching tone. “I had not offered my heart
to anyone till now. But now I have given myself over to
you. Please stay here.” The reply of the young man is as
adamant as ever. He says, “I go forward. Nothing Can
stop me” and proceeds onward.

One such instance has actually happened in the life of
Tatya Tope, the matchless general of the 1857 War of Inde-
pendence. Azijan, a young Muslim dancing girl, was struck
by the manly beauty of the general. She employed all her
charms to captivate his heart. But Tatya Tope told her,
“Well, you know that the one passion of my life is driving
out the English. There is no place for any other thought to
me. But if you really love me and desire to bring joy to
my heart, then you also join hands with me in this noble
cause.” Azijan agreed instantly. She gave away ail her
money to Tatva Tope and in pursuance of his designs went
to the English army camp. There she lured those captains
by her charms and shadowed their movements and con-
veyed their plans to the leaders of the national uprising.
She remained faithful to the cause upto her heroic end in
the war itself.

Such are the men who can, by a mere touch, turn base
metal into gold, turn all difficulties into opportunities and
even temptations into their allies in the grand battle for
achieving their ideal. In the words of Swami Vivekananda
they ‘worship the Terrible’ and love to live dangerously.
With the fiery energy of youth in their nerves, the flash of
idealism in their eyes, steadfast and unruffled amidst all
storms of temptations and adversities, and radiating inspi-
ration all round, they press forward triumphantly from
success to success till they achieve the goal of their
dreams.

XXIII The Ideal Incarnate

Life-long self-crucifixion — Self-transformation — Friend
of all, enemy to none— The irresistible— Incomparable
unifier— Self-effaced— Living for others — In the fire of
endless exertion — The death that enlivens millions —
How words derive power — Child of greatness.

D octor keshav baliram hedgewar, the

founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was
born in 1889 in Nagpur. From his early childhood until
his very last, his life burned like a steady lamp in the
cause of the motherland. Even as a child of eight he
threw away in disgust the sweets given to him in his
school on Queen Victoria’s birthday saying that it was
a sign of slavery. He amazed his elders by his strange
questions. “How is it that these Englishmen coming from
thousands of miles away have become our rulers ?” he
would ask. When he was in high school, he was rusticated
from school for lighting the flame of Vande Mdtaram
movement among the students in Nagpur. He had, as it
were, imbibed the spirit of undiluted patriotism right from
his mother’s womb.

Rarity Among Rarities

After matriculating from Poona, he chose Calcutta,
then the home of revolutionaries, with a view to studying

414

The Ideal Incarnate

417

their movement at close quarters and participate in it.
He soon became one with the Bengalis in their life and
customs. He plunged into the various political and social
activities there and soon became the inspiring centre
of a band of patriotic young men drawn from all over the
country.

When he returned to Nagpur as a young and brilliant
doctor, many eyes were riveted upon him with fond hopes
about the 4 bright career ’ that awaited him. Many were
the matrimonial approaches made to him. But, his was
not a life to be chained to the narrow confines of a family.
By way of a final reply to all such proposals he wrote
to his uncle Abaji Hedgewar, 44 1 have pledged my life to an
ideal. I have staked my all at its altar. Where then shall
I find time and energy to indulge in personal pleasures
and family life?”

Be it remembered, he was born in a family grovelling
in stark poverty. We may come across persons bom in
affluence, who have no need to worry about their bellies or
of their kith and kin, coming out for national work, though,
of course, even such instances are rare. But Doctorji
was a rarity among rarities. Though stark poverty and
half-starvation was staring in the face, he never thought
of earning a single pie for himself or his family. He never
practised though he was a doctor. He preferred to become
the ‘Doctor of the nation.’

Like a Lamp

Right up to his very end, dire poverty remained as
his faithful companion. For months on end he carried
on with hardly one full meal a day. Many times he was
in tattered clothes. He was ever short of the barest
necessities of life.

One day, a gentleman called on Doctorji. As the

conversation was nearing a close, Doctorji requested him

to stay for tea and sent word to his sister-in-law to

prepare tea. The minutes passed; there was no tea.

418

Bunch of Thoughts

Another ten minutes passed; still there was no tea. The
gentleman was in a hurry to go. Doctorji went inside to
find out what the matter was. And he found nothing
except cold water and his sister-in-law quietly sitting in
a corner! There was no one else even to go to market
and bring the necessary things. So Doctorji himself went
out, brought sugar and tea, and after a short while tea
was served to the gentleman. That gentleman was shrewd
enough to understand the situation. Till then he had not
the least scent of the monetary plight of Doctorji though
he was acquainted with him for a long time. In fact,
looking at the ever-smiling face of Doctorji, his radiant
enthusiasm, his infectious laughter, his captivating manners,
shedding sweetness and joy all-round, no one could imagine
the extremities under which he was living. He was like a
lamp which burns itself silently but sheds warmth and
light all-round.

Immediately after that incident, the gentleman sent
for me and inquired in detail about Doctorji’s monetary
condition. He was shocked to know the abject state of
affairs. He became restless and angrily asked me, “Why
have you not made arrangements to remove his financial
worries ? ” I replied, “How can Ekadashi fill the belly
of Shivaratri?” He became grave for a while and told me,
“I simply cannot stand this. You should accept twenty-five
rupees every month from me at least to meet the expenses for
guests. But take care, let this not reach Doctorji’s ears ! ”
I suggested that he himself should propose it to Doctorji.
But knowing as he did Doctorji’s strong views in the
matter, he also did not dare broach the subject with Doctorji,
and there the matter ended.

An Adage Disproved

In addition to this burning idealism, he was a glowing
example of the rarest of all virtues— the will to reform
oneself in conformity with the chosen mission in life.
He was born in a family known for its violent and

The Ideal Incarnate

419

■fiery temper. Doctorji also fully inherited that 4 ancestral
heritage It is often stated that inherited tendencies and
habits are very difficult to be changed— Swabhavo durati-
Jcramah. The queer saying, 4 ‘Man should be careful in the
choice of his parents”, expresses the same idea. But all
such self- weakening ideas were proved false by Doctorji.
Since the day he resolved to build an organisation, wherein
people of varied natures and qualities were to be blended
into an organised and harmonious whole, he decided to
reform himself. Those who had seen him before were
surprised to find him a completely transformed man. After
he founded the organisation rarely did anyone see him
using a harsh word or getting upset in the face of even the
gravest provocation. Even if anybody spoke to him
harshly he would just smile and that smile would wear
.away the edge of opposition. Doubtless, his inner fire
would erupt sometimes — but that was when he used to
find insults and ignominy being heaped upon our nation
and our people submitting to all that mutely.

Steadily and with stupendous self-effort he had trans-
formed himself in every little detail as a moving and living
example of a worker dedicated to the mission of national
reorganisation based on the highest values of our cultural
heritage. He had realised from his experience that fiery
public speeches, however enthusing for the moment,
would never help to build an enduring organisation, of
dedicated hearts which shall burn like a steady flame
amidst all tempests of temptations and adversities. On
the contrary, such intemperate speeches would only harm
the organisation by inculcating, though unconsciously, a
mentality of finding cheap satisfaction in criticising and
•exposing one’s opponents. Such a mentality could have
no place in an organisation of the type of the Sangh which
sought self-reformation in society, knowing as it did the
one lesson of our history that our people alone, and not
outsiders, are responsible for all our degeneration and
•disaster.

420

Bunch of Thoughts

Before the starting of the Sangh, Doctorji himself was
a fiery speaker. In 1921, during the non-cooperation
movement, he was arrested for one of his fiery speeches.
He was produced before the court on the charge of sedition.
After listening to his spirited defence in the court the
magistrate remarked, “His defence is more seditious than
his speech!” But after starting the Sangh he fully
restrained his expressions. Thereafter his speeches, though
charged with feeling and burning themselves into the heart
of the listeners, were never provocative and violent. Even
in informal chitchat his words carrid a wave of sweetness
and appeal to the heart. He had known by experience
that sweetness of speech was a ‘must’ for a national
organiser.

Yudkisbtbira Reborn

In all this transformation there was nothing artificial
or superficial. It was so deep and enduring that it
became the very texture of his nature expressing itself
spontaneously in his thought, word and action. His was
not the 4 long-distance popularity’ which would vanish like
a soap bubble on closer contact and scrutiny. There is
a saying, 44 No here is a hero unto his own valet.” But in
his case, the opposite was true; the more one came near
him, the more one would love and adore him. His character
was the same in private as in public — one sweet harmonious
whole. Such was his pure, noble, radiant and transparent
character that even those who opposed him in the public
field had not a word of reproach or abuse about his person.

There was a famous barrister in Nagpur by name
Sri Abhyankar, who was a leading political figure of that
province. He had a voice of thunder and a knack for pick-
ing holes in his opponents’ character. And he used these
qualities in full measure during elections to expose and
browbeat his opponents. Once Dr. Moonje contested
against him in elections. The barrister imagined that
Dr. Moonje had as one of his main supporters Doctorji

The Ideal Incarnate

421

and his Sangh. So he decided to attack Doctorji and the
Sangh in his public speech. In his speech he directed his
tirade against every supporter of Dr. Moonje, but when
he began referring to Doctorji his tone at once softened
and he frankly confessed that he could not find a single
word by way of abuse against Dr. Hedgewar. Just
imagine, such a public confession amidst a virulent election
campaign and from such a person !

In fact, Doctorji’s relations even with his opponents
went deeper than could be affected by any superficial
differences. Right from his Calcutta days he had cultivated
an attitude of love and regard and co-operation towards all
persons and organisations devoted to the cause of national
emancipation— even those with whom he did not see eye to
eye. Political jealousies found no place in him. The flame
of patriotism burning in his heart was too radiant to allow
the shadows of parochial considerations to fall anywhere
near him.

Once a friend approached Doctorji in the night to
secure for him urgently a loan of five hundred rupees. It
was nearing midnight and Doctorji was in a fix. Then he
got up, went directly to Sri Abhyankar and made a request.
Without a word Sri Abhayankar brought the amount and
handed it over to Doctorji. Doctorji asked him for paper
and pen so that he could write a promissory note for him.
Sri Abhyankar ejaculated, “ Doctorsaheb, have I gone out
of my senses that I should take a promissory note from
Dr. Hedgewar? All Nagpur would laugh at me”!

Such was the absolute faith and confidence that his
sterling character had inspired even in the minds of his
public adversaries. He was like Yudhishthira who would
address even Duryodhana as Suyodhana. When the incredible
news of the death of Ashwatthama spread in the battlefield,
Drona decided to verify its truth from Yudhishthira, his
chief adversary ! Such was his rectitude of conduct which
had made others, his friends and foes alike, to trust him.
Doctorji was, as it were, the modern reincarnation of

422

Bunch of Thoughts

Yudhishthira. He was verily a man with no foes and only
friends — an AjcitasTiatru.

Once the Government of Central Provinces became
seized with the fear that the growing strength of the Sangh
may prove a menace to the 4 communal peace ’ in the province,.
The Government sent out a circular in 1932 prohibiting
its servants from taking part in the activities of the Sangh.
The municipalities and the district boards were also
advised to take similar steps. There was an uproar in
the province at the thoughtless and anti-national step
of the Government. It found its echo in the Provincial
Assembly also. A censure motion against the Government
was moved in the Assembly. And it was supported not
only by the Hindu members but also the Muslim, Christian.,
Parsi and all other members. And the ministry itself had
to quit office shortly after that.

The Irresistible

The feature of his character had endowed him with such a
rare power of personality that even persons notorious for
their arrogance and turbulence would behave in a decent
and gentle manner in the presence of Doctorji. There was
a person in Nagpur who used to call himself a 4 general ’ l
He had taken a vow not to allow any meeting, which did
not have him as the president, go undisturbed. That
"general’ had an army of goon das, who would fall upon
such an ‘unauthorised’ meeting and within a few minutes
the meeting would end in confusion and chaos. During
those days a friend of Doctorji coming from outside was to
address a meeting in Nagpur. But the promoters of the
meeting had grave apprehensions that the ‘general’ would
not allow that meeting. But Doctorji’s calm assurance
gave them confidence and they arranged the meeting. As
the meeting commenced, the ‘ general ’ arrived with his
‘army’. Seeing him coming, Doctorji rose and welcomed
him with great warmth, and made him sit by his side. The
speaker too was in his full spirits and scathingly criticised

The Ideal Incarnate

423

the party to which the 4 general ’ belonged. The 4 general ’
was wild with rage, throwing his glances here and there ; but
seeing the calm, confident and majestic figure of Doctorji
sitting just beside him, a cold shiver would pass through
his body and he would sit back helplessly in his chair. The
meeting went on peacefully for over two hours. After the
meeting was over his followers pestered him with questions
for keeping mum. He only replied, 44 What could I do?
That man was sitting beside me!”

Incomparable Unifier

What a mountain-load of anxieties and tormentations
he must have been carrying in his bosom to be able to hold
together countless number of men, mould each one of them
after the image of an ideal national worker and set up
enduring conventions and inspiring examples as basis for
the organised life of a whole nation for generations to come
— and all this under extremely hard conditions of personal
existence! But the most amazing part was, no one could
guess these deep undercurrents coursing through his being
every moment of his life. Whoever came in his contact
would go back bathed in the fresh-springs of joy and
laughter always gushing forth from Doctorji. Various and
diverse were the types of persons who always surrounded
him. His friends would jocularly say that Doctorji was
maintaining a ‘human zoo’! But none in the ‘zoo’ felt
himself out of tune while in the company of Doctorji. The
young and the aged, the orthodox and the modern, the
educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor would
all find in him a note of common element. Such was his
spirit of identification and the sweep of his dexterity. To
him no man, however low and deficient in the eyes of
others, was worthless.

Self-Effaced

At the root of that exceptional quality lay the spirit of
complete humility, unsullied by even the least traces of ego.

424

Bunch of Thoughts

Infatuation for name and fame, position and power, never
touched him. Right from the inception of the Sangh, he
was constantly on the look-out for a suitable person who
could be the head of the organisation. And he himself
wanted to remain as his humble follower, thus setting up a
living example for all other workers. In fact he made
repeated efforts to bring in a great Hindu leader as its chief,
but in vain. That great man with all his other virtues could
not grasp the potentialities of the Sangh and make up his
mind for that historic role. Doctorji was sorely disappointed
but he continued his search. He remained naturally the
chief of the organisation on the sheer merit of his virtues,
like the lion which is the natural king of the forest —
swayameva mrigendrata. But he could not till the very end
reconcile himself to that position.

In spite of his towering stature Doctorji never exhi-
bited any airs. He would even restrain the natural and
spontaneous expressions of adoration for him by his co-workers
and swayamsevaks. He was severely uncompromising
in that regard. In 1940 he was returning to Nagpur after
visiting the training camp at Poona. I had gone to the
Railway station to receive him. As the trian arrived we
found him standing at the entrance of the compartment,
his face beaming with a smile. Just as I advanced towards
him to offer a garland, I met his stem forbidding glance.
I stopped half-way with my hands half-stretched. Immedi-
ately he smiled and remarked, “I am coming to my
own home. Where is the need for all this? In fact we
should weleome our honoured guest.” And he indicated the
gentleman who was accompanying him. I offered him that
garland. I had no opportunity to garland Doctorji all
through his life. I could only garland his body after he
had left us. He was equally averse to being photgraphed.
It was only rarely and after a prolonged tussle with
his co-workers that he would consent to his photograph
being taken.

Though stem and unsparing to himself, what an ocean

The Ideal Incarnate

425

of love he was to each and everyone of us ! Words fail to
describe the depth of that pure and selfless love. The-
boundless affection of the mother’s heart, the sleepless care
and diligence of the father and the inspiring guidance off
the guru found their culmination in that single bosom. I
for one feel it my proud privilege to worship him as my~
ideal. The worship of such a soul transcends the worship
of an individual and becomes the worship of the ideal itself.
He is verily my chosen deity.

Philosophy of Action

Single-minded devotion, sterling character, matchless
organisational skill, indomitable faith in the ultimate succes
of the cause he had taken up as his life-mission and limitless
capacity for effort and exertion were the only capital
of his endeavour. He spared no pains and paid little
attention to his bodily needs, to such an extent that even
failing health in his later years could not slow down the
tempo of his physical and mental exertion. His co-workers
were torn with anxiety about his worsening health. Some
even warned that his body would not last long if he
continued in that strain. But he would reply to all such
queries in a simple sentence, “ After all, my body is for the
sake of work ”, and would close the matter. He knew no
rest or respite. His was the philosophy of action. He
was for ceaseless and intense action, especially during the
days of youth. “What is the use of resting during the
days of youth only to prolong one’s life up to old age when
the body becomes useless for any active dynamic work?”
he used to ask. If out of compulsion of his co-workers he
consented to go to a place for rest, he would not rest without
starting a few shakhas in and around that place 1

Once in 1939 his illness became very acute. Doctors-
advised him complete rest. I was with him at that time.
Treatment was going on. Medicines were regulary given-
but to no purpose. The doctor who was treating him was.
perplexed. While checking the details of the treatment,.

426

Bunch of Thoughts

he inquired when Doctorji would go to sleep. I replied,
“As usual at 1 or 1-30 in the night.” The doctor was
shocked to hear that. He said, “ That is why he is not
improving. Probably you are not allowing him to sleep
-early. He must go to bed by 10 O’clock.” I confessed
my inability to make him sleep so early. The doctor
said, “Well, if you cannot do it, I will myself come and
do it.” I welcomed his proposal. That day the doctor
came at 9 o’clock in the night. Doctorji had just taken
his food and was alone in his room. As it was not good to
sleep immediately after taking food, the doctor began chit-
chatting with Doctorji for a while. I was sitting outside
all the while. When, however, the doctor felt drowsy, he
looked at his watch. It was past 1 o’clock ! He got up
hurriedly, instructed Doctor to sleep and came out. As
he started out, I just enquired of him the time. In an
apologetic tone he said, “I forgot myself in talking!” and
went away.

Offer Flower of Youth

Doctorji stuck to that practice even during his serious
illness. He would call the workers at night and talk to
them singly or in groups till late in the night. All our
efforts to dissuade him proved futile before his grim resolve
to expand the work at peak speed. Even the steel frame
of his body could not cope for long with his intensely
dynamic spirit. Within fifteen years of the starting of the
organisation, his body was completely consumed by the
fire for idealism. It was not that he was unaware of the
approaching end. In fact he used to say, “ I know quite
well the nature of my malady. I also know its remedy.
But I have simply no time to spare for treatment. I do
also visualise its result. But I cannot help. God’s will be
done.”

Just as a yogi finds fulfilment in offering himself as an
oblation in the fire of yoga manifested in his body, so did
Doctorji offer his body in the fire of suffering and sacrifice.

The Ideal Incarnate

427

That has been our glorious tradition. But today we
often hear that we should not exert ourselves too much in.
our younger days lest our lifetime may be cut short.
Doctorji ridiculed that advice of wasting the precious
moments of youth only to drag on old age for some more
years. One should in fact offer oneself at the altar of the
Mother when the flower of youth is in full bloom shedding
fragrance and radiance all-round. It would be a sacrilege
to offer a faded flower devoid of colour and odour in the
worship of one’s chosen deity. This was his concept of
fruitfulness of human life; this was how he lived and this,
was how he died.

Living and Dying

His was not an ordinary death. It was a steady and
consuming fire stretched over the entire period of his youth.
There are some who sacrifice their lives in a flash of
martyrdom. True, that is also glorious and inspiring.
But to burn oneself every moment of life to light up countless
other hearts is verily a iapasya of the highest order. Like
Shibi of the olden days he cut his own flesh bit by bit
in order to protect the ‘dove’ of society. Like Dadhichi,.
who gave his bones to be forged into a deadly weapon to
slay the demon Vritrasura, Doctorji too smilingly transfused
his life-blood to society till the last drop. That was how
a Shankaracharya died at the age of thirty-two, a Vivekananda
at thirty-nine and a Shivaji at fifty. Doctorji too died at fifty.
And it is they who live eternally!

How Words Get Power

Words get charged with irresistible power when uttered
by such souls. Doctorji’s words used to be very simple—
as if he was speaking to a child. But what a force they>
carried! Once Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee of revered
memory came to see Doctorji with a desire to discuss
some serious problem with him. At that time Doctorji
was too ill — and that proved to be his last illness ! —

428

Bunch of Thoughts

To engage himself in a long discussion, So I requested

Dr. Mukherjee to have a preliminary talk over the subject
with me and if anything remained he could go to Doctorji
for a final answer. He agreed. We had a prolonged discussion.
And although each one of his queries and doubts was
answered, still he remained unsatisfied. So we went to
Doctorji. He put the same question to Doctorji. And

Doctorji replied in a few words, conveying the same answer
as I had given. But to my astonishment I heard Dr.

Mukherjee say, “Now I am completely satisfied.” That

incident gave me the lesson of my life that it was the
character, the penance, the sacrifices of a person that impart
power to his words. Arguments, discussions, flashes of
intellect, all pale into dismal dimness before that supreme
power.

A Child of Greatness

Excelling though in all that go to make an epoch-maker,
he remained all through his life like a child— simple,
unassuming, without any airs, speaking to one and all in a
spirit of intimacy, laughing, joking and appreciating the
smallest of virtues in others.

Once in a weekly meeting of some advocates in the
Sangh, several issues connected with the organisation were
being discussed in a free and informal manner— some
one mooting a query regarding the future set-up of the
‘Sangh, some one else suggesting the formation of a formal
central committee and so on. Then abruptly one of them
posed the question, “What, after all, is at the root of the
Sangh?” “Well, it is Doctorsaheb ”, I simply said. An old
gentleman was present in the meeting who had known
Doctorji from his boyhood. Doctorji would often go to him
•seeking his suggestion and guidance. Obviously he was
moved to hear my words regarding Doctorji. He was amazed
to find that all of a sudden the ‘ boy Keshav ’ had grown to
.such heights. A flash of new realisation, as it were, dawned
•upon him. After the meeting he went to Doctorji and

The Ideal Incarnate

429 ;

remarked affectionately, “Doctor, how great you have-
become ! All the while I was imagining you as the same-
old lad Keshav!”

The greatest of men who grace the world-stage cast
that spell to make others unaware in their greatness, so that
they may not shirk and shudder of their greatness, so that
they may come and freely mix with them in a spirit of'
comradeship. Sri Krishna by his childish pranks had cast
a spell over all in the Gokula. No one, not even Yashoda..
would remember that he was God Incarnate Himself.
Once when he was reported to have eaten dust and Yashoda
forced him to open his mouth, she saw illimitable universes*
dancing in that little cavity. She was shocked and dumb-
founded. But that was only for the moment. The same
old smiling, mischievous, teasing pranks of the child
Krishna made her forget that fleeting realisation.

Doctorji’s disarming simplicity had cast a similar spell
upon all those who came near him, even his nearest friends-
and co-workers. It was only rarely that they would
remember, as if in a flash, that they were in the company
of a great soul of unsurpassable majesty born but once in
centuries for the redemption of the people. And they would
be surprised and even shocked at the free and almost equal
way in which they mixed with him, sometimes even taking,
liberties with him! But that was all for a moment. Again
the simple, smiling figure of Doctorji would cast its spell
and they would forget all about it.

Such was our Doctorji, the founder of the Sangh the
Hindu Ideal of man in flesh and blood, the very embodi-
ment of the saying, fwftrfe: tfvT (The

great ones achieve great tasks not because of external aids but
by their intrinsic merit), a Guiding Light for all generations*
to fashion their lives in its effulgence for a glorious and
immortal national life.

ADDENDUM

Wanted a Unitary State

An article written by Sri M. S. Golwalkar just after
the publication of the Report of the States Reorgani-
sation Committee in 1956.

T HE Report of the S. R. C. is out for about a fortnight.

Prominent persons in the political field started giving
free expression to their reactions to the recommendations of
the Commission even before the report was officially published.
Nobody seems to be satisfied. The whole atmosphere is
charged with antagonism to the report. Feelings are rising
high. All legislative groups are giving free vent to feelings
of antagonism towards one another. No one group appears
to be in a mood to co-operate with, and live side by side
with another in one common administrative unit. Antagonism
has been so intensified and aggravated as to take the form
of deep-rooted hostility.

The British Propaganda

One cannot help remembering the propaganda the
British Bureaucrat has made about this country and the
people. He has emphatically been telling all the world to
bear in mind that this is not one country but a continent like

431

432

Bunch of Thoughts

what modern Europe is— an extensive > ce of land comprising
of many countries, many peoples, many nationalities all with
their distinct racial, cultural and linguistic features. He
has been warning all to be undeceived about the complexion
of the people here, upholding that they are not one people
at all in the sense of the unity of the people of England
or France or Germany, but a conglomeration of numerous
peoples having less in common with one another and
having more differences with one another than even the
peoples inhabiting the various countries of Europe: that
ethnologically they are all of different racial stock ; historically
they have come to migrate into this land from some unknown
home to take up their habitation here; politically they have
been successive raiders and invaders ultimately settling
down in the fertile territory and as a result, bearing towards
one another inherent hostility latterly become latent and
less prone to manifest itself in the shape of open violence ;
linguistically strangers to one another; culturally of different
standards; and religiously so far divided as to be always
ready to fly at each other’s throat.

The differences especially emphasised, and to a great
extent fanned by them, were between the Hindus and the
Muslims, the ‘Dravidas’ and the ‘Aryans’, the various sects
such as the Jains and the Sikhs as against the rest of
the Hindus, between the various castes each against the
rest, more especially between the Brahmin and the non-
Brahmin. They never tired of telling the world, and
particularly to our own people, that it was their providential
-existence in the country as the sovereign power which had
held all these forces of dissension in check and prevented
the country from continuing to be a gruesome scene of
violence, bloodshed, incessant, intermittent, internecine war,
insecurity to life, honour and property ; that they had
supplied a stable government, just, merciful and progres-
sive; and that it was only because of them, and during
their continuance in power, that the sense of common
motherland, patriotism and of a common nationality was

Wanted a Unitary State

433

being gradually forged out of this bewildering mass of
heterogeneous, and often incompatible, peoples.

Leaders on Test

And for a time it did appear that one common love for
the motherland had been infused, or had been renovated,
among the people throughout the length and breadth of
this land of Bharat; that, founded upon this love, a sense
of one people and one nationality had been forged. All
the leaders of the people spoke in terms of one nation and
seemed to manifest a genuine faith in it. All voiced this
great sentiment and tried to rouse the people to fight for
the freedom of the country from the yoke of the Britisher.
And it seemed that the whole mass of people had caught
the sentiment.

But the Britisher never tired of reiterating and emphasising
the differences which he conceived and tried to inculcate
in the people. He prophesied that with his withdrawal
the land would be given to internecine feuds of all types
and all order would be shattered, total chaos would prevail.
With this he tried to justify his continuance— holding absolute
imperialistic sway over our country. Our leaders, however,
fancied that this was mere "propaganda, untrue, if not
actually vicious’, and intensified the struggle for freedom
in the belief that the ideal of one nation had been realised
as an actual fact by themselves and, following them, by all
the citizens of the land. Eventually the Britisher was
compelled, by force of circumstances, his shattered post-war
condition and the pressure of international situation, to relax
his grip over this country and give up governing the people
entrusting that responsibility to the leaders, who had been
so vociferously and persistently demanding self-government.
And the time arrived when the vaunt of the leaders that
they had forged and realised one common national life was
to be put to test.

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Bunch of Thoughts

The Failures

What is the result of the test? To be honest it cannot
be said that we have passed the test successfully. The first
and most cruel blow to the professions of ‘One Country,
One Nation’ was dealt by the acceptance of the unhappy
partition of our Mother — Bharata bhoomi. It meant an
acknowledgment that the Muslims formed a distinct and
antagonistic national community which had been tied down
to live in this land with the Hindu Nation and which won
for itself a distinct state by vivisection of the country in
which they had originally come as invader and where they
had been trying to settle down as conquerors. In spite of
their protestations to the contrary, and vehement attempts
to repudiate the two-nation theory indulged in by some—
shall we say, indiscreet people?— the acceptance and, now,
the justification of Partition, and the resultant separate
Muslim State carved out of the body of the Motherland has
clearly given the lie to all these protestations and proved
that verbal professions and essential beliefs were not in
harmony and that all along, somewhere in the background of
the thought processes of all these eminent leaders, there
did abide the belief in the existence of a separate Muslim
nation ‘justly’ claiming a distinct state within the borders
of what all claimed as one Motherland — fractioning the land
and thus evincing an innate disbelief in the oneness of the
Motherland as well.

This misuse of the slogan of the ‘right of self-deter-
mination’ has been extended to Kashmir, and now to
Goa also. To say that Kashmiris shall determine their
own future is to repudiate the oneness of the country and
of the people here in Bharat. Then came our present
Constitution converting our country into a number of
almost distinct units each with a ‘state’ of its own and all
‘federated’ into one ‘Union’. When one pauses to think
of the conditions in which our makers of this Constitution
lived when they framed the Constitution one sees that the
atomosphere then was extremely congenial to the formation

Wanted a Unitary State

435

and evolution of a Unitary State — One Country, One Legis-
lature, One Executive Centre running the administration
throughout the country —an expression of one homogeneous
solid nation in Bharat or what remained of it then. But
the mind and reason of the leaders were conditioned by
the obsession of a 4 federation of states ’ where each linguistic
group enjoyed a 4 wide autonomy ’ as ' one people ’ with
its own separate language and culture.

At the Root of Fedaration

As far back as 1923 the Indian National Congress,
which was then the only political body in the country
claiming to represent the whole of the people, had envisaged
such a federal pattern for our land and had opted for
linguistic states going into the composition of that federation.
What made them declare that to be the end for which
they were working, is not clear. But in this connection
a statement reported to have been made by a Conservative
Member of the British Parliament expounding the need
of provincial legislatures, that this step would eventually
lead to a situation, when, if the British were to withdraw,
the country would be divided into half-a-dozen or more
mutually exclusive and mutually hostile linguistic states,
seems to give the clue as to the origin from which this
inspiration to establish 6 linguistic states ’ and their ‘ federation ’
in the country, may have been inherited by the makers
of that declaration.

Committed thus to establishing a federation of linguistic
states, the Constitution which was ultimately adopted could
not but be of a federal structure accepting for the time being
the existing provincial boundaries and exalting the erstwhile
provinces to the status of almost autonomous e states The
question of reorganisation of 'states boundaries’ and
the demand for fulfilling the promise of the establishment
of linguistic states was to be met with later, and now the
S. R. C. has come forward with recommendations apparently
unsatisfactory to all sections of the people. And the

436

Bunch of Thoughts

atmosphere is evidently one of mutual distrust, lack of
goodwill, greedy clamour for grabbing more territory,
exhibiting a rueful picture of so many wolves growling
at one another over a carcass. The spectacle presented
is so very painful. It seems as though the leaders are
vying with one another in trying to justify the boast of
the British Imperialist that but for his heavy hand over
the affairs of the country the people would tear one
another to pieces and the country would be steeped in
confusion worse confounded.

Our Future at Stake

Why is all this happening ? Why are all the professions
of unity of the motherland and of the nation torn to
shreds? Were these professions at all real? The present
sorry state of affairs forces upon us the conclusion that
those in charge of affairs in the struggle for freedom from
the British yoke never realised that this was ‘One Country,
One People and One Nation 4 . The countrywide unity,
temporarily manifested, was not the outcome of the
positive understanding of our agelong notional entity, of
a realisation that the variety seeming to baffle those not
conversant with the mode of our national thought and
generous outlook on life — an outlook granting full freedom
for expression and evolution to all individuals and groups
without disrupting the grand harmony of one homogeneous
National Being — was just an expression of the richness
of vitality of life, of successful synthesis referring the
seeming difference to a deep fundamental unity, but was
a mere patch-work, a temporary truce called to meet a
common imperialistic adversary, a short-lived confederation
invoked for the limited purpose of meeting a common
danger born out of a negative feeling of antagonism to the
rulers commonly foreign to all confederates, as a result
of reaction to the British domination. That is why, we
infer, as soon as the antagonistic British withdrew from
the scene, the patched-up unity has fallen to pieces for

Wanted a Unitary State

437

want of a common adversary necessitating a united front
to combat it with.

This is a very doleful picture of our present " condition.
As we try to look ahead a dreary future looms before
us, steeped in the darkness of despair about a better future.
With the leaders guiding the destiny of the country today
lacking in a positive understanding of the oneness of our
holy motherland, of the living unity immortally underlying
the rich variety in which eternal national consciousness
has been always manifesting itself, and, as a result, indulging
in encouraging fissions and fragmentations, it will be unwise
to entertain any hopes for a bright future. Even our bare
existence as a respectable free nation is in jeopardy and,
in a world inhabited by power-seeking war-mongering peoples,
our existence is precariously at the mercy of whimsical
chance which may, at any moment, deluge the world
in a dreadful struggle, from being submerged in which
we may not hope to succeed. A house divided against
itself is bound to fall.

There Is a Remedy

Dismal thoughts these. But there is no reason to give
ourselves up to despair, for there is a remedy. The remedy
lies in rooting out all tendencies towards separatism, all
sentiments denying the firm faith in the oneness of the
motherland and shaking free from all words and actions
calculated to produce ideas countrary to the realisation of
the oneness of our national life.

Towards this end the most important and effective
step will be to bury deep for good all talk of a federal
structure of our country’s Constitution, to sweep away
the existence of all ‘autonomous’ or semi-autonomous
6 states ’ within the one State viz., Bharat and proclaim
4 One Country, One State, One Legislature, One Executive ’
with no trace of fragmentational, regional, sectarian, linguistic
or other types of pride being given a scope for playing
jhavoc with our integrated harmony. Let the Constitution.

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Bunch of Thoughts.

be re-examined and re-drafted, so as to establish this
Unitary form of Government and thus effectively disprove
the mischievous propaganda indulged in by the British
and so unwittingly imbibed by the present leaders, about
our being just a juxtaposition of so many distinct ‘ethnic
groups’ or ‘nationalities 1 happening to live side by side
and grouped together by the accident of geographical
contiguity and one uniform supreme foreign domination.
Let us be grateful to the makers of the present Constitution
as also to the worthy members of the S. R. C. for the
services rendered but let us not allow the nation to become
a house divided against itself and heading towards destruction
by falling to pieces. Let our present leaders of the affairs
of the state take courage in both hands, take a realistic
view of things, envisage the dangers of disruption staring
us in the face, face the misguided opposition of such ill-
informed people as may happen to stoop to such opposition
and, with a firm hand, change the present ill-conceived
federal structure to the only correct form of government, the
unitary one.

Let Sankaracharya and Lincoln Inspire Present Leadership

With one sweep all talk of fragmenting the country
will have been silenced, the rising tide of disunity, distrust
and mutual hostility put down, and conditions for a
harmonious evolution of One Homogeneous People, One
Nation, will have been established. There is no doubt that
barring some vociferous elements the mass of the people
will stand solidly behind such a scheme and our present
leaders shall go down into futurity as the successful builders
of Bharatiya national solidarity, will be worshipped by
posterity as modern manifestation of a Shankaracharya, as
Bharatiya parallels of an Abraham Lincoln.

The patriotism, and faith in the eternal Bharatiya
Nation, of the leaders of our generation is being now put to
the rest. Whether they prove to be pure metal with a true
ring, or mere tinsel, will be seen in the boldness they 7

Wanted a Unitary State

439

manifest and the steps they take now at this historic hour
calling for all courage, determination and intense love for
our ancient, but immortal nation. Let us pray to the
Almighty, who, in His wisdom, has always been guiding
this Hindu Rashtra on the right path, the path of Dharma,
that is the Path holding the people together in one loving
integrated unity, guide our leaders in this dark hour and
inspire them with the right understading and instil in them
courage to tread along the right path for a glorious revival
of our Great People.

<jContint4ed from the front flap)

The outlook it offers has room for
ail minorities on condition of their
whole-hearted submission to the supreme
value of the nation in.thelr lives. The
nation is the vehicle of universal truths
and is not an entity above them. This
Is no chauvinist nationlism of the kind
associated with Mussolini and Hitler in
the recent West.

Thus these thoughts go on to deli-
neate quietly and patiently the portrait
of the best Indian society and pattern
of values in all spheres of life and

culture Philosophy, art and social

order, that the Sangh seeks to hold
before the mirror of the national mind.